AN unknown poem by Hugh MacDiarmid, regarded as Scotland's greatest poet of the 20th century, reveals he appeared to welcome London's threatened destruction in the Blitz.
The work is among hundreds of previously undiscovered poems found 25 years after MacDiarmid's death scattered through a major collection of his material bought by the National Library of Scotland in 1990 for (pounds) 250,000.
Some 300 in number, they range from epigrams to the London poem and the American bombing of Vietnamese children in the name of freedom one quarter of a century later. In the poem, On The Imminent Destruction Of London, June 1940, he writes of the possible devastation, ''that I hardly care'', and that if any place be ''burned, and lost, it may as well be London - Nay, London far better than most''.
He compares London to a ''foul disease'' and claims ''death and destruction has gone out from London all over the world''.
The collection of unknown poems has been described as wonderful by Dr Alan Riach, general editor of the Complete Works of Hugh MacDiarmid and head of the Scottish Literature department at Glasgow University. They will be included in a new three-volume edition of MacDiarmid's complete poems.
MacDiarmid had worked in London from 1929 to 1932 for what became the Radio Times. Less than a decade later, he was denouncing the city as ''the centre of all reaction to progress and prosperity in human existence'' and seemed to relish the prospect of its destruction. ''What countless shackles must with its shattering shatter,'' he wrote.
The poem still has the capacity to disconcert more than 60 years after the Blitz. It is inconceivable that such verses could have been published during the second world war. It may be MacDiarmid held this piece and others back during his lifetime to protect his reputation.
The parent archive of MacDiarmid material, consisting of 246 separate items, including notebooks, manuscripts and family letters, was sold to the National Library 12 years after his death by the Perthshire-based literary collectors, Kulgin Duval and Colin Hamilton. They had been long-term patrons of various Scottish poets, including MacDiarmid, buying manuscripts from him.
John Manson, a Dum-friesshire-based admirer of MacDiarmid, has assembled the unknown poems, some scribbled in notebooks or backs of envelopes, or embedded in longer works.
Manson, himself a poet, started his research to resolve the question of MacDiarmid's political views, which were inconsistently both Scottish nationalist and communist. He kept encountering poems in the course of his reading and decided to note every one. The 300 finds are the result, with more promised.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article