ALEXANDER Scott (1920-1989) returned to graduate at Aberdeen University after distinguished service in the Second World War.

Playwright as well as poet, he was an influential reader in Scottish Literature at Glasgow University and a master of spoken Scots, as this poem, praising the commonsense and lack of bloodlust of ordinary Scottish soldiers, demonstrates.

THE SODGERS

Nae wi the gallus captains

That niver jinkit war

But socht for glory's wildfire lowe

As wise men aince for anither star -

And nae wi the ramstam colonels

That leuch at the din o the drum

And skirled for the bleeze o battle's Inferno

As saunts micht skirl for Kingdom Come -

But aye wi the sweirt sodgers

That niver wished tae dee

And anelie marched the forrart road

Sen onie back they cudna see -

Near blind wi the reek of wappins

And the reek of leean words,

But niver near sae blind wi bluid

As faa in luve wi guns and swords.

sweirt=loth;reluctant