Sorley MacLean

Sorley MacLean ( Gaelic: MacGill - Eain Somhairle; born October 26, 1911 Raasay, Inner Hebrides, † 24 November 1996) was a Scottish poet who wrote his poems in Gaelic and in 1990 was awarded the Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry.

Life

After visiting schools on the Isle of Skye and Raasay, he studied English at the University of Edinburgh where he began his poetic activity as a student and at the end of the 1930s already had a reputation within the Scottish literary scene. In 1940 he published jointly with Robert Garioch of poems Seventeen Poems for Sixpence than hand pressure. During World War II he served his military service in the British Army and took during the African campaign in the battles of El Alamein and suffered serious injuries there.

After he had recovered from his injuries, he published in 1943 Dáin do Eimhir ( Poems to Eimhir ), which contained many of his love poems to the legendary Eimhir from the early Irish sagas and also in later editions yet received broad attention and recognition. Influenced by the metaphysical poets, but also of Celtic mythology and traditional Gaelic music, MacLean revived the Gaelic literary language and tradition again, while his friend Hugh MacDiarmid as a serious literary language began the Scots language again. During this time, he also belonged to the Celtic League and was often the author of articles in their quarterly Carn.

MacLean, who worked as a teacher and school principal until his retirement published in 1972, 1977 Reothairt is Contraigh ( Spring Tide and Neap Tide) in his important collection of poems. Many of his poems was published in bilingual editions worldwide. After 1989, the anthology Collected Poems appeared in 1990 he was the Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry Award.

Publications

  • Seventeen poems for sixpence, 1940
  • Dain do Eimhir, 1943
  • Poems to Eimhir, 1971
  • Spring tide and neap tide, 1977
  • Reothairt is contraigh, 1985
  • Ris a'bhruthaich, 1985
  • Auld Alliance poetry reading, 1985
  • 14 poems of Sorley MacLean, 1986
  • From Wood to Ridge, 1989
  • O Choille gu bearradh, 1991
  • Eimhir, 1999

Background literature

  • T. McCaughey: The History of Scottish Literature, Volume 4, 1987
  • Joy Hendry: Gaidhealtachd and Sorley MacLean ( Chapman Magazine ), 1992, ISBN 9780906772409

External links and sources

  • Literature by and about Sorley MacLean in the catalog that German national library
  • Publications ( openlibrary.org )
  • Chambers Biographical Dictionary, Edinburgh 2002, p 980, ISBN 0 550 10051 2
  • Author
  • Literature ( Scottish Gaelic )
  • Literature ( 20th century)
  • Poetry
  • Teacher
  • Scotsman
  • Born in 1911
  • Died in 1996
  • Man
  • Briton
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