I’ve mentioned the Scottish poet Norman MacCaig a dozen times in this collection of notes. I’ve just started reading one of MacCaig’s colleagues, George Mackay Brown.
If you don’t know him, you can get a quick taste by reading two short poems, “The Poet” and “The Finished House.” Follow the links below.
In “The Poet,” Brown says that the poet’s true task is “interrogation of silence,” a line to remember. I think “The Finished House,” a short poem about the things that must be done to make a house a home, is a masterpiece.
After World War II, MacCaig and Hugh McDiarmid used to meet with friends to smoke, drink, recite and argue at the bars on Rose Street in Edinburgh. Milne’s Bar was the most famous, but the poets also met at Abbotsford Bar and Café Royal. The group included Sorley MacLean and Brown.
In 1980, Alexander “Sandy” Moffat painted “Poets Pub,” which shows the poets in action. The setting is a composite of the three pubs.
In the 1950s and ’60s, the informal salon was famous. Milne’s advertised itself as the Poet’s Pub and kept photographs, drawings and other memorabilia on the walls.
But old poets fade away, and corporate office eventually decided to refresh the décor. There was a fuss when the poets’ memorabilia was evicted.
• Sources: George Mackay Brown’s “The Poet” is available at The Poetry Archive:
https://poetryarchive.org/poem/poet/
“The Finished House” is available at the Scottish Poetry Library:
https://www.scottishpoetrylibrary.org.uk/poem/finished-house/
The National Galleries of Scotland has an image of Sandy Moffat’s “Poets Pub” here:
https://www.nationalgalleries.org/art-and-artists/features/artist-sandy-moffat-reflects-poets-pub
An account of the fracas at Milne’s Bar, see “Anger as pub calls time on old poets,” The Scotsman, Nov. 28, 2009. It’s here:
https://www.scotsman.com/arts-and-culture/anger-as-pub-calls-time-on-old-poets-2443146
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