Poems in a Scottish Setting
November 26, 2020 12:47 PM Subscribe
The Poetry Map of Scotland has more than 350 poems, each linked to a specific place in Scotland. The map is a standard Google map, and you can zoom in and click on the title of poems, which takes you to the poem itself. The map is a project of the Stanza Poetry Festival, and the poems have been submitted by living poets.
Oh, wonderful!
My favourite thing about visiting Edinburgh was discovering the Scottish Poetry Library, a stunning little building filled to the brim with poetry. My second favourite thing was finding a five-pound note on the sidewalk with Nan Shepherd on it. It's a grand thing to get leave to live!
posted by oulipian at 4:37 PM on November 26, 2020 [2 favorites]
My favourite thing about visiting Edinburgh was discovering the Scottish Poetry Library, a stunning little building filled to the brim with poetry. My second favourite thing was finding a five-pound note on the sidewalk with Nan Shepherd on it. It's a grand thing to get leave to live!
posted by oulipian at 4:37 PM on November 26, 2020 [2 favorites]
This is a wonder! Thanks for sharing. Stanza runs a delightful poetry festival, usually held in the spring that I haven't managed to make it to yet.
Reading the title I had thought that this might be a link to another great poetry map of Scotland: namely, Edwin Morgan's Chaffinch Map of Scotland. That's the best version of it I could find online, but it's worth buying one of the books it's published in.
We're lucky that Scotland currently values poetry relatively highly, and equally lucky that we've had three incredible poets to be the Scots Makars this century. Jackie Kay (the current Scots Makar) is a cracking poet, and though she isn't represented on the map, I find this wee poem both about her parents and about George Square itself a beauty.
posted by sarcas at 7:16 AM on November 27, 2020 [2 favorites]
Reading the title I had thought that this might be a link to another great poetry map of Scotland: namely, Edwin Morgan's Chaffinch Map of Scotland. That's the best version of it I could find online, but it's worth buying one of the books it's published in.
We're lucky that Scotland currently values poetry relatively highly, and equally lucky that we've had three incredible poets to be the Scots Makars this century. Jackie Kay (the current Scots Makar) is a cracking poet, and though she isn't represented on the map, I find this wee poem both about her parents and about George Square itself a beauty.
posted by sarcas at 7:16 AM on November 27, 2020 [2 favorites]
I love the Chaffinch Map, too. Here's a great reproduction of it from the University of Glasgow.
posted by oulipian at 8:11 AM on November 27, 2020 [2 favorites]
posted by oulipian at 8:11 AM on November 27, 2020 [2 favorites]
Oh, sarcas, that poem is a stunner. Thank you for introducing me to it, and to Jackie Kay.
posted by minervous at 4:35 PM on November 27, 2020 [2 favorites]
posted by minervous at 4:35 PM on November 27, 2020 [2 favorites]
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My Scottish poet dad died at the beginning of the year with the wish for me to scatter his ashes in the river Tweed. When this stupid pandemic is over you can bet I'm going to read from these when I travel around his home country to honor and remember him.
posted by latkes at 1:23 PM on November 26, 2020 [5 favorites]