SCOTTISH 'POETRY
[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR.] Sni,—No member of the so-called Scottish Renaissance literary group commands nearly so much confidence as Mr. Edwin Muir, and his review of Mr. R. L. Mackie's "World's Classics Series" A Book of Scottish Verse, in your issue of April 20th, is authoritative. It might be possible to add half a dcw.n pieces to his list of those that should not have been absent. One might also demur to his contemptuous verdict on Andrew Lang as a poet. But with his conclusion that, in spite of this book's contents, Scots poetry has been mainly folk-stuff since the fifteenth century, one is reluctantly driven to agree ; and although he himself and the Rev. A. J. Young, Mr. William Soutar and a few more Scots have written good poems in our time, there is not yet any token of a major poet's emergence in Albion. Mr. Hugh MeDiamid alone displays sufficient energy for the role, and his incapacity for self-criticism makes it rather hard to find the gold among the less noble metals in his mine.
It is the slashing review of Mr. I. M. Parsons a week later, however, dealing with the English Association's The Modern Muse anthology that prompts this footnote. With all its weak- nesses, the output of poetry in contemporary Scotland is at least above the average level of work in this volume. Yet
there are scarcely half a dozen pieces by Scots included. There are Several anthologies of vernacular modern Scots verse as well as Messrs. Dent's Holyrood anthology of poems in 'English by Scottish writers, and all of these reveal frankly the lack of stay and epic might of which the northern kingdom's singers are accused. But from these—and from work in verse pub- lished after their date—it would be possible to name almost a score of poets (and several score of poems) more than worthy of a place in a work of such comprehensive design and low standard as The Modern Muse. Is their exclusion a slight, or is it due to ignorance of the field ? The same complaint might be made on Scotland's behalf with regard to the delightful annual (edited by Mr. Thomas Moult) of The Best Poems of the Year (since 1922). Is no effort made by English editors to procure Scots periodicals and books ?
No overwhelming claim is hereby made for living Scots poets. As Mr. Muir hints, they probably do not exist. But there are many as admirable as at least half of the contributors to The Modern Muse, and one wonders why they meet with such utter neglect when publications that claim to be repre- sentative of British work are issued.—I am, Sir, &c., CLAN ALBYN.
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