Skail Winds and Scattered Personalities: The Formation of Identity in Sydney Goodsir Smithâs Early Poetry

Emma Dymock

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Chapter 2 Skail Winds and Scattered Personalities: The Formation of Identity in Sydney Goodsir Smithâs Early Poetry

In: Sydney Goodsir Smith, Poet

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Emma Dymock

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Type:: Chapter

Pages:: 31â45

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004426498_004

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Abstract

Douglas Youngâs review, in The New Alliance, of Smithâs first poetry collection, Skail Wind (1941) is rather scathing. Young writes âHere is a sign of the times, another epiphenomenon of English cultural decay. To find his mode of expression, a globe-trotting English speaker, of Antipodean provenience, has recourse to Lallans, which moreover he wields not worse than many autochthonous North Britonsâ. He goes on to accuse âthe makarâ of trailing ârelics of the English Thirtiesâ and comments that âthe rhythm also is too often slack, and interminable spavined lines schauchle [shamble] over the excellent paperâ. In a letter to Sorley MacLean, Young is concerned that he has gone too far and caused offence. To examine the relationship between these three men is to journey to the heart of the later Scottish Renaissance with its lively debates on language and politics. As such, this chapter examines the part that Smith played in this Scottish literary circle of the late 1930s and early 1940s, placing his first collection into a wider literary context and exploring his (sometimes fraught) search for an authentic poetic voice at a time when the markers of Scottish literature were being redefined and refined.

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Sydney Goodsir Smith, Poet

Essays on His Life and Work

Series:Â SCROLL: Scottish Cultural Review of Language and Literature, Volume: 30Â andÂ SCROLL: Scottish Cultural Review of Language and Literature Online, Volume: 30

E-Book ISBN:: 9789004426498

Publisher:: Brill

Print Publication Date:: 04 Mar 2020

Subjects
- Literature and Cultural Studies

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Chapter 2 Skail Winds and Scattered Personalities: The Formation of Identity in Sydney Goodsir Smithâs Early Poetry

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Sydney Goodsir Smith, Poet

Essays on His Life and Work

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Chapter 2 Skail Winds and Scattered Personalities: The Formation of Identity in Sydney Goodsir Smithâs Early Poetry