Helen Cruickshank

British poet

Helen Burness Cruickshank (15 May 1886 – 2 March 1975) was a Scottish poet and suffragist and a focal point of the Scottish Renaissance. Scottish writers associated with the movement met at her home in Corstorphine.

Quotes

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  • Up the Noran Water
    In by Inglismaddy,
    Annie's got a bairnie
    That hasna got a daddy.
    Some say it's Tammas's
    An' some say it's Chay's;
    An' naebody expec'it it,
    Wi' Annie's quiet ways.
    • "Shy Geordie", st. 1, in Up the Noran Water (1934)
    • See Illegitimacy
  • This man set the flame
    of his native genius
    under the cumbering whin
    of the untilled field;
    Lit a fire in the Mearns
    to illumine Scotland,
    clearing the sullen soil
    for a richer yield.
  • Sae smoor yersel', my man,
    Pit oot yer licht,
    Grey hair that's tow
    To a lassie's lowe
    Is an unco sicht.
    • "An Unco Sicht", st. 2, in Sea Buckthorn (1954)
  • Laughter and gibes and scorn
    they brave for her:
    their pounds, their silver, and their pence
    they give;
    their time, their talent and their youth for her
    that she may live.
    • "Lines for the Scottish Watch", st. 1, in Sea Buckthorn (1954)
    • See Wendy Wood
  • They agonise in sordid
    tenements,
    with children stabled worse than sheep
    or kye.
    O, how can grace or peace or health abide
    such poverty?
    • "Lines for the Scottish Watch", st. 3, in Sea Buckthorn (1954)
  • I mind o' the Ponnage Pule
    On a shinin' mornin',
    The saumon fishers
    Nettin' the bonny brutes —
    I' the slithery dark o' the boddom
    O' Charon's Coble
    Ae day I'll faddom my doots.
    • "The Ponnage Pool", st. 4, in The Ponnage Pool (1968)
  • But where this passionate self will go,
       God knows,
    Who knows whence the lightning comes, and
       whither it goes.
    • "At the End", in Collected Poems (1971)
  • While I am not teetotal, a drunk woman I find revolting and Burns orgies detestable.
    • Octobiography (1976), ch. 9
  • Criticism in Scotland, of books as well as plays, is often bedevilled because we all know each other too well. The clique can cast its chill over its rivals; the claque delude with false praise.
    • Octobiography (1976), ch. 15
  • I am not asked out to drinking parties and have never been in a Rose Street pub. I can't be a poet.
    • Octobiography (1976), ch. 20

Unsourced

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  • I mind o' the Ponnage Pool,
    The reid brae risin',
    Morphie Lade,
    An' the saumon that louped the dam,
    A tree i' Martin's Den
    Wi' names carved on it;
    But I ken na wha I am.
    • "The Ponnage Pool"
  • Bide the storm ye canna hinder,
    Mindin’ through the strife,
    Hoo the luntin’ lowe o’ beauty
    Lichts the grey o’ life.
    • "Sea Buckthorn"
  • The man that mates wi’ Poverty
    An’ clasps her tae his banes,
    Will faither lean an’ lively thochts,
    A host o’ eident weans.
    • "Comfort in Puirtith"
  • Under an arch o’ bramble
    Saftly she goes,
    Dark broon een like velvet,
    Cheeks like the rose.
    • "In Glenskenno Woods"
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