Norman MacCaig

This revised and expanded edition of Norman MacCaig's collected poems includes all the work he wishes to preserve from fourteeen individual volumes, as well as over a hundred uncollected peices: nearly seven hundred poems in all, spanning his career from the early 1950s to the present. All are marked by the wit and the wisdom, the clarity of language and observation, and the masterly lightness of touch that have earned him his reputation as a great poet. 'A book full of delight , love, decency, wit and wisdom. Above all, it is a book of life. It deserves to be called a classic. 'Douglas Dunn

Collected Poems

The Poems of Norman MacCaig

George Mackay Brown

Iain Crichton Smith

Iain Crichton Smith, Norman MacCaig, George Mackay Brown

By the time of his death in January 1996, Norman MacCaig was known widely as the grand old man of Scottish poetry, honoured by an OBE and the Queen's Medal for Poetry. This book is a celebration of MacCaig's life - 2010 is the hundredth anniversary of his birth - and it features 100 of his best poems, edited by his son Ewen.

Selected Poems of Norman MacCaig

The Many Days

A Man in My Position

'Two Men at Once' is one of Norman MacCaig best known poems. He was indeed two men at once: Edinburgh, the city where he was born and lived as a teacher and poet, was his home, but no other place shaped his poetry more than Assynt in Sutherland. It is here that he would spend many a summer on family holidays, walking the hills and fishing the lochs. MacCaig’s fresh eye saw remarkable newness even in the everyday and each poem is a tiny revelation, a new look at an old friend. This collection celebrates, renews, and rediscovers Norman MacCaig’s Assynt.

Poems from Assynt

Between Mountain and Sea

The White Bird

I have always loved the mixture of strictness and susceptibility in Norman MacCaig's work. It is an ongoing education in the marvellous possibilities of lyric poetry . . . He means poetry to me' - Seamus Heaney 'Norman MacCaig is an indispensable poet, and his Collected Poems is a wonder-book which will give years of pleasure' - Douglas Dunn 'Magisterial' - The Herald 'Deeply lyrical yet crystal clear in its language, MacCaig's poetry is a must-have' - Sunday Herald This collection of Norman MacCaig's poems is offered as the definitive edition of his work. It has been edited by his son, Ewen. A prolific writer, MacCaig left about 600 unpublished poems after his death; 99 have been selected for inclusion here. The aim of the selection process was to sustain the overall quality of the 1990 Collected Poems, which was compiled by the poet. Unusually, MacCaig's creativity did not decline with age, and most of the unpublished poems date from his seventies and early eighties, adding significantly to his published work from that period. Insight to the writer's life and work is provided in an appreciative introduction by author and critic Alan Taylor, focusing on MacCaig's life and times, and in a collection of MacCaig's words on his own and others' writing.

Norman MacCaig

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