“‘The Nightfishing’ is one of those rare poems that consciously sets out to be a masterpiece and pulls it off”
—Seamus Perry on W.S. Graham
published in the London Review of Books, 18 July 2019
7/7
https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v41/n14/seamus-perry/what-a-carry-on
#Scottish #literature #poem #poetry #modernism #romanticism #WSGraham
Currently on BBC Sounds – The Verb celebrates WS Graham’s centenary in 2018, & Ian McMillan presents new poetry inspired by Graham from Rachael Boast & Penelope Shuttle
6/7
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b09xnqky
#Scottish #literature #poem #poetry #modernism #romanticism #WSGraham
Lying asleep walking
Last night I met my father
Who seemed pleased to see me.
He wanted to speak. I saw
His mouth saying something
But the dream had no sound…
—WS Graham, “To Alexander Graham”
5/7
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/48732/to-alexander-graham
#Scottish #literature #poem #poetry #modernism #romanticism #WSGraham
Just for the sake of recovering
I walked backward from fifty-six
Quick years of age wanting to see,
And managed not to trip or stumble
To find Loch Thom and turned round
To see the stretch of my childhood
Before me…
—WS Graham, “Loch Thom”
4/7
https://www.scottishpoetrylibrary.org.uk/poem/loch-thom/
#Scottish #literature #poem #poetry #modernism #romanticism #WSGraham
REMEMBERING WS GRAHAM
Brian Morton wonders if “the contrast between the industrial/mercantile foreground & the shock of green/purple hills & endless sky beyond” gives writers from Clydeside – like WS Graham – “a heightened sense of language & colour”
3/7
https://www.scottishreviewofbooks.org/free-content/remembering-ws-graham/
#Scottish #literature #poem #poetry #modernism #romanticism #WSGraham #Clydeside
Listen. Put on morning.
Waken into falling light.
A man’s imagining
Suddenly may inherit
The handclapping centuries
Of his one minute on earth…
—WS Graham, “Listen. Put on Morning”
2/7
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/55094/listen-put-on-morning
#Scottish #literature #poem #poetry #modernism #romanticism #WSGraham
What are you going to do
With what is left of yourself
Now among the rustling
Of your maybe best years?
—WS Graham, “An Entertainment for WS Graham for Him Having Reached Sixty-Five”
The Modernist romantic poet W.S. Graham (1918–1986) was born #OTD, 19 November
A 🎂 🧵
1/7
#Scottish #literature #poem #poetry #modernism #romanticism #WSGraham
[To Sheila Lanyon, on the Flyleaf of a Book]
W. S. Graham
Inscribed by the author on the flyleaf of a copy of THE WHITE THRESHOLD belonging to Sheila Lanyon, widow of the late painter Peter Lanyon. The poem is dated June 18, 1966 and the “second summer” referred to is the second since Peter’s death, after a gliding accident, on August 31, 1964.
“Graham’s ‘Untidy Dreadful Table’, a poem that pictures itself doubled & mutated on the other side of the page… could likewise be said to traffic in a form of translation”
Samuel Martin confronts layouts, facing pages, literary translations, & WS Graham
7/8
https://www.thebottleimp.org.uk/2025/06/facing-tables-with-w-s-graham/
#Scottish #literature #poetry #translation #literarytranslation #WSGraham
Across the many fragmented chapters of This Little Art, Kate Briggs compiles a playful and affectionate portrait of the literary translator as ‘would-be writer’ – in other words, a reader so powerfully swayed by a given text that they feel impelled to write it all over again, only this time in a different language. Briggs embraces […]
From the Scottish Poetry Library archives: poet & novelist John Burnside discusses fellow Scottish poet W.S. Graham. During the talk, recorded at the National Library of Scotland, Burnside talks about poetry & visual art, the poet as nomad, & “feeding the dead”
https://splpodcast.podbean.com/e/john-burnside-on-ws-graham
#Scottish #literature #poetry #visualart #poets #JohnBurnside #WSGraham
The SPL is pleased to be able to share a treasure from our audio archives: from 2008, a talk by poet and novelist John Burnside on fellow Scottish poet W.S. Graham. During the talk, recorded at the National Library of Scotland before an audience, Burnside talks about poetry and visual art, the poet as nomad and ‘feeding the dead’.
Assoc for Scottish Literature
