Hugh MacDiarmid

Hugh MacDiarmid (1892-1978} commemorative placque near Gladstone Court Museum, Biggar, South Lanarkshire, UK. Photo by Angus McCulloch. Licensed under Creative Commons, courtesy Geograph.org.

Christopher Murray Grieve
Born	11 August 1892 Langholm, Scotland
Died	9 September 1978 Edinburgh, Scotland
Pen name	Hugh MacDiarmid
Occupation	poet
Literary movement	Scottish Renaissance

Hugh MacDiarmid was the pen name of Christopher Murray Grieve (11 August 1892 - 9 September 1978), a significant Scottish poet of the 20th century.

Life

MacDiarmid was instrumental in creating a Scottish version of modernism and was a leading light in the Scottish Renaissance of the 20th century. Unusually for a 1st-generation modernist, he was a communist; unusually for a communist, however, he was also a committed Scottish nationalist. He wrote both in English and in literary Scots (often referred to as Lallans).

Youth and early writing

MacDiarmid was born in 1892 in Langholm, Scotland.

After leaving school in 1910, he worked as a journalist for 5 years. He then served in the Royal Army Medical Corps during the First World War. After the war, he married and returned to journalism. His debut collectin, Annals of the Five Senses (1923) was a mixture of prose and poetry in English, but he then turned to Scots for a series of books, culminating in what is probably his best known work, the book-length A Drunk Man Looks at the Thistle. This poem is widely regarded as among the most important long poems in 20th century Scottish literature. After that, he published several books containing poems in both English and Scots.

Politics

In 1928, MacDiarmid helped found the National Party of Scotland. He was also a member of the Communist Party of Great Britain. During the 1930s, he was expelled from the former for being a communist and from the latter for being a nationalist. In 1956, MacDiarmid rejoined the Communist Party.

In 1950, George Orwell compiled a list of suspected communist sympathisers for British intelligence. He included MacDiarmid in this list.

As Grieve, MacDiarmid stood in the 1950 election in the Glasgow Kelvingrove constituency, as the Scottish National Party]] candidate, coming last with 639 votes. He also stood against Alec Douglas-Home in Kinross and Western Perthshire for the Communist Party at the 1964 election, taking only 127 votes.

MacDiarmid listed Anglophobia amongst his hobbies in his Who's Who entry.

In 2010, letters were discovered showing that MacDiarmid believed a Nazi invasion of Britain would benefit Scotland. In a letter sent from Whalsay, Shetland, in April 1941, he wrote: “On balance I regard the Axis powers, tho’ more violently evil for the time being, less dangerous than our own government in the long run and indistinguishable in purpose." A year earlier, in June 1940, he wrote: “Although the Germans are appalling enough, they cannot win, but the British and French bourgeoisie can and they are a far greater enemy. If the Germans win they could not hold their gain for long, but if the French and British win it will be infinitely more difficult to get rid of them.” Marc Horne in the Daily Telegraph commented: "MacDiarmid flirted with fascism in his early thirties, when he believed it was a doctrine of the left. In two articles written in 1923, Plea for a Scottish Fascism and Programme for a Scottish Fascism, he appeared to support Mussolini’s regime. By the 1930s however, following Mussolini’s lurch to the right, his position had changed and he castigated Neville Chamberlain over his appeasement of Hitler’s expansionism." Deirdre Grieve, MacDiarmid’s daughter-in-law and literary executor, noted: “I think he entertained almost every ideal it was possible to entertain at one point or another."

MacDiarmid died in 1978 in Edinburgh.

Writing

As his interest in science and linguistics increased, MacDiarmid found himself turning more and more to English as a means of expression so that most of his later poetry is written in that language. His ambition was to live up to Rilke's dictum that 'the poet must know everything' and to write a poetry that contained all knowledge. As a result, many of the poems in Stony Limits (1934) and later volumes are a kind of found poetry reusing text from a range of sources. Just as he had used Jameson's dialect dictionary for his poems in 'synthetic Scots', so he used Chambers Twentieth Century Dictionary for poems such as 'On a Raised Beach'. Other poems, including 'On a Raised Beach' and 'Etika Preobrazhennavo Erosa' used extensive passages of prose. This practice, particularly in the poem 'Perfect', led to accusations of plagiarism from supporters of Welsh poet Glyn Jones, to which MacDiarmid's response was 'The greater the plagiarism the greater the work of art.' The great achievement of this late poetry is to attempt on an epic scale to capture the idea of a world without God in which all the facts the poetry deals with are scientifically verifiable. In his critical work Lives of the Poets, Michael Schmidt notes that Hugh MacDiarmid 'had redrawn the map of Scottish poetry and affected the whole configuration of English literature'.

MacDiarmid wrote a number of non-fiction prose works, including Scottish Eccentrics and his autobiography Lucky Poet. He also did a number of translations from Scottish Gaelic, including Duncan Ban MacIntyre's Praise of Ben Dorain, which were well received by native speakers including Sorley MacLean.

Recognition

Hugh MacDiarmid memorial, Langholm. Sculpture by Jake Harvey, Photo by Richard Webb. Courtesy Geograph.org.

MacDiarmid grew up in the Scottish town of Langholm in Dumfries and Galloway. The town is home to a monument in his honour made of bronze which takes the form of a large open book depicting images from his writings.

MacDiarmid is commemorated in Makars' Court, outside The Writers' Museum, Lawnmarket, Edinburgh. Selections for Makars' Court are made by the Writers' Museum, the Saltire Society, and the Scottish Poetry Library.

Hugh MacDiarmid sat for sculptor Alan Thornhill and a bronze was acquired by the National Portrait Gallery. The terracotta original is held in the collection of the artist The correspondence file relating to the MacDiarmid bust is held in the archive of the Henry Moore Foundation's Henry Moore Institute in Leeds.

Publications

as C.M. Grieve

• Annals of the Five Senses (poetry & prose). Montrose, Scotland: private, 1923. Faber, 1930
  • (with introduction by Alan Bold), Edinburgh: Polygon, 1983
  • (edited by Roderick Watson & Alan Riach), Manchester: Carcanet, 1999.
• Contemporary Scottish Studies (prose). London, UK: L. Parsons, 1926
  • enlarged edition, Scottish Educational Journal, 1976.
• Albyn; or, Scotland and the future (prose), Dutton, 1927.
• The Present Position of Scottish Music (prose). Montrose: privately published, 1927.

Poetry as Hugh MacDiarmid

• Sangschaw. Edinburgh: Blackwood, 1925 , 2nd edition, 1937.
• Penny Wheep. Blackwood, 1926 , 2nd edition, 1937.
• A Drunk Man Looks at the Thistle. Blackwood, 1926,
  • annotated edition (edited by Kenneth Buthlay), Edinburgh: Scottish Academic Press, 1987.
• The Lucky Bag. Edinburgh: Porpoise Press, 1927.
• To Circumjack Cencrastus; or, The curly snake. Blackwood, 1930.
• First Hymn to Lenin, and other poems (with introduction by AE (George William Russell)). Unicorn Press, 1931.
• Second Hymn to Lenin.Thakeham, Scotland: Valda Trevlyn, 1932.
  • also published as Second Hymn to Lenin, and other poems, Nott, 1935.
• Scots Unbound, and other poems. Stirling, Scotland: E. Mackay, 1932.
• Tarras. [Edinburgh, Scotland]: 1932.
• Stony Limits, and other poems. London: Gollancz, 1934.
• Selected Poems. London: Macmillan, 1934.
  • enlarged edition published as Speaking for Scotland: Selected poems, contemporary poetry. Baltimore, MD: 1946.
• Direadh. [Dunfermline], Scotland, UK: 1938.
  • Limited edition published as Direadh I, II, and III. K. Duvan & C.H. Hamilton, 1974.
• Cornish Heroic Song for Valda Trevlyn. Glasgow: Caledonian Press, 1943.
• Selected Poems (edited by R. Crombie Saunders). Glasgow: Maclellan, 1945.
• Poems of the East-West Synthesis. Glasgow: Caledonian Press, 1946.
• A Kist of Whistles: New poems. Glasgow: Maclellan, 1947.
• Selected Poems (edited by Oliver Brown). Glasgow: Maclellan, 1954.
• In Memoriam James Joyce: From a vision of world language. Glasgow: Maclellan, 1955.
• Stony Limits and Scots Unbound, and other poems (composite volume)Edinburgh: Castle Wynd, 1956.
• The Battle Continues. Edinburgh: Castle Wynd, 1957.
• Three Hymns to Lenin. Ediburgh: Castle Wynd, 1957.
• The Kind of Poetry I Want. Edinburgh: K.D. Duval, 1961.
• Collected Poems. New York: Macmillan, 1962. **revised edition (prepared by John C. Weston), 1967.
• Bracken Hills in Autumn. Edinburgh: C.H. Hamilton, 1962.
• Poetry like the Hawthorn (from In Memoriam James Joyce), [Hertfordshipe, UK: Hemel Hempstead, 1962.
• Poems to Paintings by William Johnstone, 1933. Edinburgh: K.D. Duval, 1963.
• An Apprentice Angel. New Poetry Press, 1963.
• The Ministry of Water. Glasgow: D. Glen, 1964.
• Six Vituperative Verses. Satire Press, 1964.
• The Terrible Crystal / A Vision of Scotland. Ayrshire, Scotland: D. Glen, 1964.
• The Fire of the Spirit. Glasgow: D. Glen, 1965.
• Whuchulls, Akros. Preston, Lancashire, England, 1966.
• Poems by Hugh MacDiarmid and Norman MacCaig (with Norman MacCaig). Amherst, MA: University of Massachusetts, 1967.
• On a Raised Beach. Harris Press, 1967.
• Early Lyrics (edited by J.K. Annand). Akros, 1968. 2nd edition, 1969.
• A Lap of Honour. MacGibbon & Kee, 1967. Swallow Press, 1969.
• A Clyack-Sheaf. MacGibbon & Kee, 1969.
• More Collected Poems. Swallow Press, 1970.
• Selected Poems (edited by David Craig and John Manson). New York: Penguin, 1970.
• The Hugh MacDiarmid Anthology: Poems in Scots and English (edited by Michael Grieve and Alexander Scott). Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1972.
• Poems (edited by Alistair Keith Campsie). Famedram, 1972.
• Song of the Seraphion. Covent Garden Press, 1973.
• Selected Lyrics (edited by Kulgin D. Duval & Colin H. Hamilton). Verona, Italy: Officina Bodoni, 1977.
• The Socialist Poems of Hugh MacDiarmid (edited by T.S. Law & Thurso Berwick). Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1978.
• Complete Poems (edited by Michael Grieve and W.R. Aitken). (2 volumes), Brian & O'Keeffe, 1978.
  • also published as The Complete Poems of Hugh MacDiarmid. New York: Penguin, 1985.
• Selected Poetry (edited by Alan Riach and Michael Grieve). Manchester, UK: Carcanet, 1992. New York, NY: New Directions, 1993.
• Hugh MacDiarmid and Duncan Glen: A prospect from Brownsbank (contains poems, biographical notes, and bibliography). Kirkcaldy, Fife, Scotland: Akros, 1998.

Edited

• William Soutar, Collected Poems. London: Andrew Dakers, 1948.

Letters

• Letters (edited by Alan Bold). London: Hamilton, 1984; Athens, GA: University of Georgia Press, 1984.
• The Correspondence Between Hugh MacDiarmid and Sorley MacLean: An annotated edition (edited by Susan Wilson). Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2010.

Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy the Poetry Foundation.

Hugh MacDiarmid reads his poem "The Watergaw."

See also

Hugh MacDiarmid reads "The Eamis Stane."

• List of British poets

References

Scotland by Hugh MacDiarmid

If I Was Not A Soldier by Hugh MacDiarmid

Hugh MacDiarmid - Scotland Small?

• Duncan Glen (1964) Hugh Macdiarmid (Christopher Murray Grieve) and the Scottish Renaissance , Chambers, Edinburgh et al.
• Michael Grieve and Alexander Scott (1972) The Hugh Macdiarmid Anthology: Poems in Scots and English, Routledge and Kegan Paul, London
• Gordon Wright (1977) MacDiarmid: An Illustrated Biography, Gordon Wright Publishing
• Alan Bold (1983) MacDiarmid: The Terrible Crystal, Routledge & Kegan Paul
• Alan Bold (1984) Letters, Hamish Hamilton
• Alan Bold (1988) MacDiarmid A Critical Biography, John Murray
• John Baglow (1987) Hugh MacDiarmid: The Poetry of Self (criticism), McGill-Queen’s Press
• Scott Lyall and Margery Palmer McCulloch (eds) (2011) The Edinburgh Companion to Hugh MacDiarmid, Edinburgh University Press
• Scott Lyall (2006) Hugh MacDiarmid's Poetry and Politics of Place: Imagining a Scottish Republic, Edinburgh University Press
• Beth Junor (2007) Scarcely Ever Out of My Thoughts: The Letters of Valda Trevlyn Grieve to Christopher Murray Grieve (Hugh MacDiarmid) Word Power
• Alan Riach (1991) Hugh MacDiarmid’s Epic Poetry, Edinburgh University Press
• An Anthology from X (Oxford University Press 1988). X (magazine) ran from 1959-62. Edited by the poet David Wright & the painter Patrick Swift. Contributors included MacDiarmid, Robert Graves, W.H. Auden, Samuel Beckett, et al.

External links

Poems

• "Water Music"
• "Second Hymn to Lenin"
• Hugh MacDiarmid 1892-1978 at the Poetry Foundation
• Hugh MacDiarmid (1892-1978) at the Scottish Poetry Library (profile & 3 poems)

Audio / video

• Hugh MacDiarmid (1892-1978) at The Poetry Archive.
• Hugh MacDiarmid at PennSound
• Hugh MacDiarmid at YouTube

About

• Hugh MacDiarmid in the Encyclopædia Britannica
• Hugh MacDiarmid at Spartacus Educational
• Hugh MacDiarmid at NNDB
• Hugh MacDiarmid profile at Carcanet Press
• Hugh MacDiarmid at Writing Scotland, BBC Two