100 Favourite Scottish Love Poems

by Stewart Conn (Editor)

This work features a vibrant selection of the best Scottish love poems, with each poet limited to one poem with the exception of Burns himself, that spans centuries and feelings of affection and desire. Through these poems many different kinds of love are explored whether it is sexual, passionate, romantic, or parental. In 100 Favourite Scottish Love Poems traditional Scottish verse mixes with great literature as Bonny Barbara Allan and Jock o' Hazeldean rub shoulders with Byron and Hogg. Modern Scottish writing, from some of the most inspiring poets of our time, MacCaig, MacDiarmid, Morgan and Carol Ann Duffy contrasts with Gaelic poetry by Sorley MacLean, Derick Thomson and Meg Bateman. Poems of first love, yearning for love, love in absence and epernal love are not grouped thematically, as in so many other anthologies, but seamlessly so that contrasting poems can strike sparks off one another, across the page - often with wit and jollity - to demonstrate that we experience love in individqal and inspiring ways.

Genres: Poetry, Scotland

192 pages, Paperback

First published January 28, 2006

About the author

Stewart Conn is a Scottish poet and playwright, born in Hillhead, Glasgow. His father was a minister Kelvinside Church but the family moved to Kilmarnock, Ayrshire in 1941 when he was five. During the 1960s and 1970s, he worked for the BBC at their offices off Queen Margaret Drive and moved to Edinburgh in 1977, where until 1992 he was based as BBC Scotland's Head of Radio Drama. He was the inaugural Edinburgh City Makar from 2002 to 2005.

Reviews

[G Robin · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a varied and interesting selection of poems covering a period from the 15th century to the present day. Almost everything is here, from the deep and lovely to the warm and witty, not forgetting just a hint of the bitchy and cynical. There’s no mush or cloying sentiment here: this is Scotland, after all. Plenty of major poets are represented (George Mackay Brown, James Hogg, Sorley MacLean to name but a few), as well as lesser known names. There is a brief bio of each poet at the end of the book listing their key works if you want to read more. Most of the poems are in English, several in Scots, and a few in Gaelic.

As for my personal favourites, I liked ‘Island Love’ by Tom Pow, in which a rather morose man expresses his wonder at the generous and constant love of his wife; ‘For Her Sake’ by Alastair Reid, a dense and complex tribute to a beloved; and ‘In the Lane’ by Isobel Wylie Hutchison, who affirms that it is lovely to be in love, and lovely not to be. Read them and see what you think.

[Alasdair Martin · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a fairly dire collection from my perspective. A huge disappointment.