I've already told you about my passion for Scotland. How can I then evade loving a scottish poet? Hugh MacDiarmid. Oh yes.

Entertain yourselves.



Well Hung
--
You shall be, my dear,
One of El Greco's holy figures,
Lithe and undulating
And bluishly spiritual,
And I one of Ribera's
Wrinkled black heads,
Ferocious with torture,
And we shall hang
On opposite walls
Of a small private gallery
Belonging to an obese financer
Forever
And Ever.


A Last Song (Withered Wreaths)
----
The heavens are lying like wreaths
Of dead flowers breaking to dust
Round the broken column of Time.

Like a fitful wind and a cold
That rustles the withered stars
And the wisps of space is my song.

Like a fitful wind and a cold
That whistles awhile and fails
Round the broken column of Time.


The Dying Earth
----
Pitmirk the nicht: God's waukrife yet
An' lichtnin'-like his glances flit
An' sair, sair are the looks he gies
The auld earth as it dees.

Pitmirk the nicht: an' God's 'good tell
I' broken thunners to hissel'
A' that he meent the warl' to be
An' hoo his plan gaed jee.

He canna steek his weary lids
But aye anither gey look whids
Frae pole to pole: an's tears doonfa'
In lashin' rain owre a'.

1