Hugh MacDiarmid

Hugh MacDiarmid (11 August 1892 – 9 September 1978) is the pen name of Christopher Murray Grieve, who was a leading Scottish poet. He was a member of the Communist party and a prominent Scots Nationalist.

I'll ha'e nae hauf-way hoose, but aye be whaur
Extremes meet.

Quotes

To meddle wi the thistle and to pluck
The figs frae't is my metier, I think.

The rose of all the world is not for me.
I want for my part
Only the little white rose of Scotland
That smells sharp and sweet — and breaks the heart.

• I amna fou' sae muckle as tired — deid dune.
  It's gey and hard wark coupin' gless for gless
  Wi' Cruivie and Gilsanquhar and the like,
  And I'm no' juist as bauld as aince I wes.
  • A Drunk Man Looks at the Thistle (1926), opening lines

• I'll ha'e nae hauf-way hoose, but aye be whaur
  Extremes meet — it's the only way I ken
  To dodge the curst conceit o' bein' richt
  That damns the vast majority o' men.
  • A Drunk Man Looks at the Thistle (1926), ll. 141–4
  • These lines are on MacDiarmid's tombstone

• To meddle wi the thistle and to pluck
  The figs frae't is my metier, I think.
  • A Drunk Man Looks at the Thistle (1926), ll. 341–2
  • The figs = the thistle's flower heads

• The number of people who can copulate properly may be few; the number who can write well are infinitely fewer.
  • Review of Lady Chatterley's Lover (1928)

• If there's a sword-like sang
  That can cut Scotland clear
  O a' the warld beside
  Rax me the hilt o't here.
  For there's nae jewal till
  Frae the rest o earth it's free,
  Wi the starry separateness
  I'd fain to Scotland gie.
  • To Circumjack Cencrastus

• The rose of all the world is not for me.
  I want for my part
  Only the little white rose of Scotland
  That smells sharp and sweet — and breaks the heart.
  • The Little White Rose

External links

• BBC page on MacDiarmid