These poems speak to me. Lyrical, passionate, yet connected to the universal facts of everyday life. I especially loved "Poem About Four Feet". A love poem, written to an absent lover.Part of this book is prose, a moving memoir of the death of the writer's grandmother. A final act of love from the writer (a critically acclaimed poet) is to read out a maudlin Victorian poem (one of those full of thees and thous) at the funeral because it was one of his grandparents' favourites. He said it was difficult to do. I'm not sure whether this was because he was overcome with grief or whether he was scared that he would break out into laughter. And check out the funny and cruel found poem "The Final Word on Vegetarians", taken verbatim from the words of an old man called Lester (with permission). A great read.

Your poetry has the universal quality of all true art, a purity of content that is independent of the works purpose in that it demateralises as soon as you think you have touched upon it.

Do ye no' kin Hugh MacDiarmid? YOU SHOULD! MacDiarmid is perhaps the greatest 20th century Scottish poet and alas, one of its least known outside of Scotland. The majority of the Poems in this collection are written in the Scots dialect, used by Burns and Tannahill in th 18th century. However, the subject matter is undeniably 20th century. The themes are largely metaphysical and political, and the content is largely free from Romanticism and nostalgia. The poems are filled with the vitality, beauty, struggle and dissapointments of modern life, yet always framed within a larger historical framework. This is poetry to rival TS Elliot, Wordsworth or Seamus Heaney. Smart, exquisitely wraught literary gems fill this collection. MacDiarmid epic masterpiece "A Drunk Man Looks At Thistle" is included here unabridged. This IS an essential read for anyone interested in Scotland or Scottish Literature. Forget the wee kilted bagpiper doll and the stuffed nessie that you bought in a giftie shop on the Royal Mile. MacDiarmid's poetry resonates the beauty of the Scottish dialect, and addresses 20th century topics. These poems for me represent Scottish culture better than any touristic souvenir giftie. They are not easy poems and the Scots words send the reader's eye down to the footnotes repeatedly. So do Shakespeare and Chaucer. This is a wonderful collection which is well annotated. If you like Burns...buy this book and prepare to have your mind blown. The Scots dialect remains very much alive in literature (see James Kellman's novels) and it is largely thanks to the magnificent poetry of MacDiarmid. THIS IS WONDERFUL STUFF!