MODERN AND CONTEMPORARY SCOTO-CELTIC

These lines tell their own tale. The translation given is that of Thomas Pattison.

HIGHLAND LULLABY.
[PAGE 218]

This lullaby first appeared in the Duanaire, edited by D. C. Macpherson (1864). It is supposed to be sung by a disconsolate mother whose babe has been stolen by the fairies. In each verse she mentions some impossible task she has performed, but still she has not found her baby. Coineachan is a term of endearment applied to a child. (Quoted by “Fionn” in the Celtic Monthly for September 1893.)

BOAT SONG.
[PAGE 219]

This boat song, so familiar to West Highlanders, is in the rendering of Professor Blackie.

JOHN STUART BLACKIE. (1809-1895.)
[PAGE 222]

The late Professor Blackie was born in Glasgow and brought up for the law. This he forsook for literature, and ultimately, in 1852, was appointed to the Greek Chair in Edinburgh University. All particulars of the brilliant Professor’s life and writings will be found in the recently-published biography by Miss Anna Stoddart. Professor Blackie’s name will always be held in affectionate regard for his unselfish efforts to preserve and cultivate the Gaelic language and literature, and because of his having been mainly instrumental in founding the Chair of Celtic Literature in the University of Edinburgh. His poetical writings are mostly to be found in Lays and Legends of Ancient Greece (1857), Lyrical Poems (1860), and Lays of the Highlands and Islands (1872).

ROBERT BUCHANAN.
[PAGE 224]

The foremost Scoto-Celtic poet of our time, was born in Glasgow, 1841. It would be needless to give particulars concerning the life and work of so eminent a contemporary. Lovers of the Celtic Muse will doubtless be familiar (or if not, ought to be) with Mr Buchanan’s Book of Orm. Much of his early poetry is strongly imbued with the Celtic atmosphere. Those who have read his several volumes of verse need no further guidance, but readers unacquainted with the poetical work of one of the foremost poets of our day should obtain the collective edition of his poems published by Messrs Chatto & Windus. “The Flower of the World” (page 224), “The Dream of the World without Death” (pages 228-234) are from The Book of Orm; “The Strange Country” comes from Miscellaneous Poems and Ballads (1878-1883). No more memorable poem than “The Dream” has been written by an Anglo-Celtic poet.

LORD BYRON. (1788-1824.)
[PAGES 238-239]

Byron is represented in Lyra Celtica by virtue of his Celtic blood and undoubtedly Celtic nature, rather than because there is much trace of Celtic influence in his poetry. The two lyrics given here may be taken as fairly representative of that part of his poetical work which may with some reason be called Celtic, though, of course, there is nothing in them which radically differentiates them from the lyrics of any English poet. More than one eminent critic, foreign as well as British, has claimed for Byron that he was the representative Celtic voice of the early part of the century; but Byron was really much more the voice of his own day and time than anything more restricted.

CRODH CHAILLEAN.
[PAGE 240]

This familiar Highland Milking Song is given in the translation of Dr Alexander Stewart of Nether Lochaber.

MACCRIMMON’S LAMENT.
[PAGE 241]

Perhaps the most famous pipe-tune in the Highlands is the “Cumha mhic Criomein,” composed by Donald Bàn MacCrimmon, on the occasion of the Clan MacLeod, headed by their chief, embarking to join the Royalists in 1746. The Lament is said to have been composed by Donald Bàn under the influence of a presentiment that he as well as many others of the clan would never return; a presentiment fulfilled, for he was killed in a skirmish near Moyhall. The tune and the chorus are old, but it is commonly believed the poem was composed by Dr Norman Macleod; at any rate, they first appeared in a Gaelic article on the MacCrimmons, which he contributed in 1840 to “Cuairtear nan Gleann” (“Fionn,” the Celtic Monthly). The translation here given is that of Professor Blackie.

IAN CAMERON (“IAN MOR”).
[PAGE 242]

Translated from the Gaelic by Miss Fiona Macleod.

JOHN DAVIDSON.
[PAGE 243]

Mr Davidson was born at Barrhead, near Paisley, on April 11th, 1857. After his preliminary education at the Highlanders’ Academy, Greenock, he went to Edinburgh University. For a time he taught in Greenock, and also gained a certain amount of literary experience in occasional contributions to the Glasgow Herald and other papers. In 1886 he published Bruce: a Drama, followed by Smith: a Tragedy (1888), Scaramouch in Naxos: and other Places (1889), In a Music Hall, and other Poems (1891), Fleet Street Eclogues (1893), Ballads and Songs (1894), Second Series of Fleet Street Eclogues (1895), besides several volumes of prose papers and fiction. Although Bruce was Mr Davidson’s first published work, he had begun to write at a much earlier period: his An Historical Pastoral was composed in 1877; A Romantic Farce in 1878; while Bruce was written four years before its publication. Mr Davidson’s later poetical writings have been mainly in the form of songs and lyrical ballads, and these have placed him in the foremost rank of the younger poets of to-day. He has the widest range, the largest manner, and the intensest note of any of the later Victorians. The two poems by which he is represented here are eminently characteristic, and none the less Celtic in their essential quality from the fact that the one deals with a loafer of the London streets and the other with a scenic rendering of an impression gained in Romney Marsh. Mr Davidson’s latest writings are “The Ballad of an Artist’s Wife,” not as yet issued in book form, and the just published second series of the Fleet Street Eclogues (John Lane). Both “A Loafer” and “In Romney Marsh” are from Ballads and Songs.

JEAN GLOVER. (1758-1800.)
[PAGE 246]

The author of “O’er the Muir amang the Heather” was the daughter of a Highland weaver settled in Kilmarnock. She married a strolling actor, and her fugitive songs became familiar throughout the West of Scotland. “O’er the Muir amang the Heather” has become a classic.

GEORGE MACDONALD.
[PAGE 247]

This popular Scottish novelist and poet was born at Huntly, in Aberdeenshire, December 10, 1824. As a novelist he has almost as large an audience as have any of his contemporary romancists. His poems are less widely known, though in them he has expressed himself with great variety and subtlety. The Celtic element is not conspicuous in Dr Macdonald’s work either in prose or verse; but sometimes, as in the little song “Oimè,” quoted here, it finds adequate expression. This song is from his early volume Within and Without.

RONALD CAMPBELL MACFIE.
[PAGE 249]

The author of Granite Dust (Kegan Paul) is one of the most promising of the younger Celtic Scots.

WILLIAM MACDONALD.
[PAGE 250]

One of the band of young writers associated with The Evergreen (Patrick Geddes and Colleagues, Edinburgh). Mr Macdonald has not yet issued his poems in book form.

AMICE MACDONELL.
[PAGE 251]

Miss Macdonell has not, so far as I know, published a volume. “Culloden Moor” appeared in the Celtic Monthly in June 1893.

ALICE C. MACDONELL.
[PAGE 252]

Miss Alice Macdonell of Keppoch has contributed many poems to Scottish and other periodicals. “The Weaving of the Tartan” appeared in the Celtic Monthly for December 1894.

WILLIAM MACGILLIVRAY. (1796-1852.)
[PAGE 254]

The author of “The Thrush’s Song” was not a poet, but occasionally indulged in the pleasure of verse-making. He was a well-known Highland ornithologist, and it may be added that his attempt at an onomatopoeic rendering of the song of the thrush has been pronounced by Buckland and other ornithologists to be remarkably close.

FIONA MACLEOD.
[PAGE 255]

Miss Macleod is one of the younger writers most intimately associated with the Celtic Renascence in Scotland. “The Prayer of Women” (see page 255) is from Pharais: a Romance of the Isles (Frank Murray, Derby, 1894); “The Rune of Age” and “A Gaelic Milking Song” are from The Mountain Lovers (John Lane); the “Lullaby” and the two songs of Ethlenn Stuart are from her last volume, The Sin-Eater: and other Tales (Patrick Geddes and Colleagues, Edinburgh). “The Closing Doors” has not been published hitherto. The brief lyric, “The Sorrow of Delight,” was contributed to an as yet unpublished fantastic sketch, The Merchant of Dreams, written in collaboration with a friend. Such of the poems scattered through her several volumes, and others, as she wishes to preserve in connected form, will be published by Miss Macleod early in 1896 (Patrick Geddes and Colleagues), under the title of Lyric Runes and Fonnsheen.

NORMAN MACLEOD.
[PAGE 266]

There is no Highlander held in more affectionate remembrance and admiration than the late Dr Norman Macleod: and with justice; for no one worked more arduously, understandingly, and sympathetically for the cause of the Gaelic language, Gaelic literature, and the Gaelic people than the famous poet-minister, who, to this day, is commonly spoken of as “The Great Norman.” It was, however, Dr Norman the elder who wrote “Fiunary,”—and not, as commonly stated, the late Dr Norman. His “Farewell to Fiunary” is probably the most universally-known modern poem in the West Highlands. (For critical remarks as to the authenticity of this poem, see Dr Nigel M‘Neil’s Literature of the Highlanders, pp. 283-286.)

SARAH ROBERTSON MATHESON.
[PAGE 267]

Mrs Robertson Matheson, some of whose poems in periodicals have attracted the attention of lovers of poetry, is chief secretary and treasurer of the Clan Donnachaidh Society. The fine lyric, “A Kiss of the King’s Hand,” appeared in the Celtic Monthly for May 1894; but I regret that version has inadvertently been followed, for it twice misspells tae for “to,” and in the third line of the third quatrain has a misreading (“jewels” instead of “ruffles”).

It may interest many readers to know that “A Kiss of the King’s Hand” decided the descendant of Flora Macdonald to leave Mrs Robertson Matheson the last heirloom of Scottish romance, the “ring of French gold” given by Prince Charlie to Flora, and holding the lock of hair cut from “the king’s head” by her and her mother.

DUGALD MOORE.
[PAGE 268]

“The First Ship” is so remarkable a poem that it is difficult to understand how it has met with so little recognition, and escaped most, if not all, of the Scottish and British anthologists. Dugald Moore was the son of Highland parents, and was born in Glasgow in 1805. His first book was entitled The Bard of the North, and consisted of a series of poetical tales illustrative of Highland scenery and character (1833). The Hour of Retribution and The Devoted One appeared respectively in 1835 and 1839. Moore died unmarried in the 36th year of his age (Jan. 2, 1841), and was buried in the Necropolis of Glasgow. It is a pity that the poem could not have appeared without its fourth stanza, which is inferior to the others.

LADY CAROLINE NAIRNE. (1766-1845.)
[PAGE 269]

Needless to say anything here concerning the “Flower of Strathearn.” Baroness Nairne was mainly Celtic in blood and wholly Celtic in genius. “The Land o’ the Leal” is now one of the most famous and most loved lyrics in the English language. (Readers may be referred to Life and Songs of Baroness Nairne, 1868.)

ALEXANDER NICOLSON.
[PAGE 270]

Besides this fine poem, “On Skye,” Sheriff Nicolson has translated the “Birlinn” of Alexander Macdonald, and has written many moving verses full of Gaelic sentiment of a robust kind.

SIR NOËL PATON.
[PAGE 272]

Joseph Noël Paton was born at Dunfermline on the 13th of December 1821; and while his father was also of partial Celtic origin, Sir Noël is, through his mother, the descendant of the last of the Scoto-Celtic kings. Of his career as a painter it is not necessary to speak here. His two volumes of poetry are Poems by a Painter (1861) and Spindrift (1867). The best account of the life and work of this distinguished Scot is the monograph recently published by Mr David Croal Thomson, as the “Art-Annual” of The Art Journal. The two poems by which Sir Noël is represented in this book are not to be found in either of his volumes, and their appearance here is due to the courtesy of the author.

WILLIAM RENTON.
[PAGE 274]

Mr Renton was born in Perthshire, of Scoto-Celtic parents. “Mountain Twilight” is taken from his first volume of poems called Oils and Water Colours (Hamilton, Edinburgh, 1876). Mr Renton’s only other volume of verse is his Songs (Fisher Unwin, 1893).

LADY JOHN SCOTT.
[PAGE 275]

The author of “Durisdeer” was of mixed Highland and Lowland descent. Her poem has a permanent place in our literature because of its haunting passion and pain.

EARL OF SOUTHESK.
[PAGE 276]

Lord Southesk (James Carnegie) was bom in 1827. He first made his name in literature by his strange and vigorous Jonas Fisher (1875). This was followed by Greenwood’s Farewell (1876), and The Meda Maiden (1877); though most of the poems contained in these two volumes, with several others, are comprised in The Burial of Isis (1884).

JOHN CAMPBELL SHAIRP.
[PAGE 277]

This able Scottish writer was of Celtic origin through his mother. Readers unacquainted with the poems of the late Principal Shairp, and ex-Professor of Poetry at Oxford, will do best to turn to the posthumous volume, edited, with a memoir, by Francis Turner Palgrave, entitled Glen Dessary (Macmillan, 1888).

UNA URQUHART.
[PAGE 279]

I know nothing else of Gaelic or English verse by this young writer. “An Old Tale of Three,” as it appears here, is a rendering of the original by Miss Fiona Macleod.

LOST LOVE.
[PAGE 280]

The author of this poem is unknown. The original is in the Gaelic of the Western Isles, and is one of the several fugitive songs rescued by Thomas Pattison. The version given here, however, is not identical with his, the first and last quatrains having been added by another hand.