Skip to content

Scottish Poetry Library

Register/Sign in
Shopping Bag Shopping Bag
Bringing people and poems together
  • Home
  • COVID-19
    • Re-Opening FAQ
  • Poetry
    • Poems
    • Poets
    • Our National Poet
    • Podcasts
    • Best Scottish Poems
    • Poetry and Mindfulness
    • Champions 2020
    • Posters
    • Publishers
  • Library
    • Become a borrower
    • Catalogue
    • Collections
    • Ask a librarian
    • Copyright enquiries
  • Learning
    • National Poetry Day 2019
    • National Poetry Day archive
    • SQA set texts
    • Learning resources
    • New to poetry?
    • Advice for poets
  • Events
    • Calendar
    • Exhibitions
    • Venue hire
    • List an event
  • Shop
    • Scotland’s Makar
    • Poetry Pamphlet Cards
    • Pocket Poets
    • Scottish Poetry
    • Help
  • About us
    • Our story
    • Our people
    • Our projects
    • Jobs
    • Our building
    • FAQs
    • Find us
  • Support us
    • Become a Friend
    • Donate
    • Easy Fundraising
  • Blog
Shopping BagShopping Bag
Ask a librarian
  • Home
  • >
  • Poetry
  • >
  • Margot Robert Adamson
  • >
  • Edinburgh
Donate Donate icon Ask a Librarian Ask a Librarian icon

Edinburgh

Margot Robert Adamson

If they should ask what makes the stuff of us
We should call up such idle things and gone!
The theatre we knew in Grindley Street,
The midnight bell vibrating in the Tron;

A church tower’s clock along the Lothian Road
Whose face lit up would turn a lemon moon,
Seen o’er the pallid bleakness of the street
In the chill dusks that harry northern June,

A Sunday morning over Samson’s Ribs,
The smoky grass that grows on Arthur’s Seat;
Turned yellow willow leaves in Dalkeith Road,
Dropt lanceheads on the pavement at our feet;

Glimpses got sometimes of the Forfar hills
With the white snows upon them or, maybe,
Green waters washing round the piers of Leith
With all the straws and flotsam of the sea.

A certain railway bridge whence one can look
On a network of bright lines and feel the stress,
Tossing its plumes of milky snow, where goes
Loud in full pace the thundering North Express

Behind its great green engine; or in Spring
Black-heaved the Castle Rock and there where blows
By Gordon’s window wild the wallflower still,
The gold that keeps the footprints of Montrose.

The Pentlands over yellow stubble fields
Seen out beyond Craigmillar; and the flight
Of seagulls wheeling round the dark-shared plough,
Strewing the landscape with a rush of white.

Such idle things! Gold birches by hill lochs,
The gales that beat the Lothian shores in strife,
The day you found the great blue alkanette,
And all the farmlands by the shores of Fife.


Margot Robert Adamson

from A Northern Holiday (London: Cobden-Sanderson, 1928)

The date of Margot Robert Adamson’s death and her copyright status is not known. If anyone can supply information, please contact the SPL.

Tags:

cities Edinburgh Edinburgh nostalgia Placebook Scotland
Share this
Facebook
Twitter
Email

Learn more

Margot Robert Adamsonb.1898

Margot Robert Adamson translated early Scots and English poetry into modern English. In her own poetry she drew upon life in Edinburgh and East Lothian. She also wrote novels, and travel literature ‘for those who stay at home’.
More about Margot Robert Adamson

Newsletter

Sign up for Scottish Poetry Library\\\'s regular email newsletter.
Subscribe now

Online Shop

Browse our range of poetry books, cards and gifts in our online shop.
Shop now
  • Newsletter signup
  • Accessibility
  • Terms & Conditions
  • Privacy Policy
Scottish Poetry Library
5 Crichton's Close, Canongate
Edinburgh EH8 8DT
Tel: +44 (0)131 557 2876
© Scottish Poetry Library 2021.
The Scottish Poetry Library is a registered charity (No. SCO23311).
City of Edinburgh logo Green Arts Initiative logo Creative Scotland logo
By leaves we live

The Scottish Poetry Library is staffed weekdays from 10am – 2pm and is providing a limited service including postal loans and Click & Collect. For details, click COVID-19 in the menu bar above. Dismiss