ALEXANDER Scott’s paean to his beloved has an erotic and emotional intensity that recalls the seventeenth-century Metaphysical poets. Aberdeen-born Scott (1920-1989) was an influential reader in Scottish literature at Glasgow University.
CONTINENT O VENUS
She liggs ablow my body’s lust and love,
A country dearlie-kent, and yet sae fremd
That she’s at aince thon Tir-nan-Og I’ve dreamed,
The airt I’ve lived in, whaur I mean tae live,
And mair, much mair, a mixter-maxter warld
Whar fact and dream are taigled up and snorled.
I ken ilk bay o aa her body’s strand,
Yet ken them new ilk time I come tae shore,
For she’s the unchartit sea whaur I maun fare
Tae find anither undiscovered land,
Tae find it fremd, and yet tae find it dear,
Tae seek for’t aye, and aye be bydan there.
fremd=strange, unfamiliar, foreign; snorled= tangled
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