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Discover
Poetry
in the world's leading resource for Scottish poetry

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Search from over 3,000 selected poems on this site or explore our full collection in our online catalogue

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Find out about our latest resources, projects and events

William Neill

We are marking a hundred years since the birth of he poet William Neill, with a special display, including a selection of items from our collection.
Read More

Women Poets' Prize 2022

DEADLINE EXTENDED until Monday the 15th. The race is on for women poets all over the UK to get their entries in for the biennial Women Poets’ Prize from the Rebecca Swift Foundation. Could a Scottish poet be one of the next cohort of winners?
How to enter

Balcony Readings 2022

Every August, the Scottish Poetry Library hosts The Balcony Readings: events at which anyone can turn up and read under the guidance of members of the School of Poets. The events are free, non-ticketed and relaxed affairs. No experience necessary.
Find out more

New mini podcast espisodes

Take 10 minutes to meet the poems of Jay Whittaker or Daniel Sluman in our new Nothing But The Poem podcasts.
Hear here

Lúibíní

Tha sinn toilichte a bhith a’ tòiseachadh le pròiseact bàrdachd ùir, a bheir cothrom do shianar bhàrd LGDTC+ obair a chruthachadh is a choileanadh le chèile.
Leugh Tuilleadh

Current library exhibition

See the greats of Scottish literature, re-imagined as the time-travelling rebels and free spirits their writing suggests of them.
Find out more

Our Waking Breath

A Poem-letter from Scotland to Ukraine. Curated by Scotland's Makar Kathleen Jamie from public submissions.
Watch the film

Best Scottish Poems 2021

Our annual selection of outstanding poems written by Scottish poets and poets living in Scotland writing in English, Scots and Scottish Gaelic
Find out more

A Woman’s A Woman

A special reworking by Scotland's Makar of Robert Burns’ poem for International Women’s Day, in support of the Disasters Emergency Committee’s Appeals in Ukraine and Afghanistan
Watch the film

Kin Kennings: 25 words for '25

Stirling Makar Laura Fyfe has written a blog about putting poetry and literature into the heart of Stirling's bid for City of Culture 2025.
Discover more

Spiorad an àite / Spirit of Place

Spirit of Place is a journey of poetry, dance, film, music and language. A conversation between Ireland and Scotland following on the old routes of Saint Columba.
Watch the film

Anonymous wis a wumman

Ashley Douglas researched the absences and erasure of women’s voices from the early times of published poetry in Scotland. Ashley also looked at the misattribution and denial of same-sex women’s writing.
Read Ashley's blog

Burns Night: The Trysting Thorns

Creative responses by women to the life and work of Robert Burns
Watch and read the poems

Makar helps launch the Year of Stories

Kathleen Jamie produced a film to support the launch of Scotland's Year of Stories
Discover more & watch the film

Black poets respond to climate change

We have commissioned new poetry from Black women poets in partnership with Africa in Motion Film Festival and Obsidian Foundation.
Watch the film-poems

The People of Scotland's Nature Poem

Our national Makar has curated three new collective nature poems, 'The Life-breath Songs'
Discover more

Share our poem of the moment...

Robert Louis Stevenson,
/ the author in his jimjams,
/ wrote about the New Town,
/ its draughty parallelograms...
Continue reading Stevenson’s Edinburgh
More from Andrew Neilson
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By Detroit Publishing Co., under license from Photoglob Zürich [Public domain or Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

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Scottish Poetry Library
5 Crichton's Close, Canongate
Edinburgh EH8 8DT
Tel: +44 (0)131 557 2876
© Scottish Poetry Library 2022.
The Scottish Poetry Library is a registered charity (No. SCO23311).
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Scottish Poetry Library