Skip to content

Scottish Poetry Library

Register/Sign in
Shopping Bag Shopping Bag
Bringing people and poems together
  • Home
  • Poetry
    • Poets
    • Poems
    • Film
    • Podcasts
    • Makar – National Poet
    • Best Scottish Poems
    • Poetry Ambassadors
      Tosgairean na Bàrdachd
  • Library
    • Become a borrower
    • Catalogue
    • Collections
    • Ask a librarian
    • Copyright enquiries
  • Learning
    • SQA set texts
    • Learning resources
    • Children’s poems in Scots
    • National Poetry Day archive
    • New to poetry?
    • Advice for poets
  • Events
    • What’s On
    • Meeting rooms and venue hire
    • Exhibitions
  • Shop
    • Poetry Highlights
    • Stichill Marigold Press
    • Poems for Doctors, Nurses & Teachers
    • Scottish Poetry
    • Poetry Pamphlet Cards
    • Help
  • About us
    • Our story
    • Our people
    • Company Papers & Policies
    • FAQs
    • Find us
    • Contact us
  • Support us
    • Become a Friend
    • Donate
  • Blog
Shopping BagShopping Bag
Ask a librarian
  • Home
  • >
  • Poetry
  • >
  • Deòrsa Mac Iain Deòrsa
    George Campbell Hay
  • >
  • The Old Fisherman
Donate Donate icon Ask a Librarian Ask a Librarian icon

The Old Fisherman

Deòrsa Mac Iain Deòrsa
George Campbell Hay

Greet the bights that gave me shelter,
they will hide me no more with the horns of their forelands.
I peer in a haze, my back is stooping;
my dancing days for fishing are over.

The shoot that was straight in the wood withers,
the bracken shrinks red in the rain and shrivels,
the eyes that would gaze in the sun waver;
my dancing days for fishing are over.

The old boat must seek the shingle,
her wasting side hollow the gravel,
the hand that shakes must leave the tiller;
my dancing days for fishing are over.

The sea was good night and morning,
the winds were friends, the calm was kindly –
the snow seeks the burn, the brown fronds scatter;
my dancing days for fishing are over.


Deòrsa Mac Iain Deòrsa
George Campbell Hay

from Wind on Loch Fyne (Oliver and Boyd, 1948), and included in Collected poems and songs of George Campbell Hay (Deòrsa Mac Iain Dheòrsa), edited by Michel Byrne (Edinburgh: EUP for The Lorimer Trust, 2000)

Reproduced by permission of the W.L. Lorimer Memorial Trust Fund

Tags:

ageing fishing
Share this
Facebook
Twitter
Email

Learn more

Deòrsa Mac Iain Deòrsa
George Campbell Hay1915 - 1984

George Campbell Hay is unique among the poets of the interwar Scottish Renaissance movement in having written in all three of Scotland's principal literary languages.
More about Deòrsa Mac Iain Deòrsa
George Campbell Hay

Online Shop

Browse our range of poetry books, cards and gifts in our online shop.
Shop now

Events

Discover our poetry events at the library & online.
Find forthcoming Events
  • 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 2022.
The Scottish Poetry Library is a registered charity (No. SCO23311).
City of Edinburgh logo Green Arts Initiative logo Creative Scotland logo
Scottish Poetry Library