Skip to content

Scottish Poetry Library

Register/Sign in
Shopping Bag Shopping Bag
Bringing people and poems together
  • Home
  • Poetry
    • Poets
    • Poems
    • Makar – National Poet
      • Our Waking Breath: A Poem-letter from Scotland to Ukraine
      • A Woman’s A Woman
      • The story of the Makar – National Poet of Scotland
    • Best Scottish Poems
    • Spiorad an Àite
      Spirit of Place
    • The Trysting Thorns
    • Poetry Ambassadors
      Tosgairean na Bàrdachd
      • Poetry Commissions: Walter Scott 250
        Coimiseanan Bàrdachd: Walter Scott 250
      • Poetry Ambassadors 2021
    • Posters
    • Podcasts
  • Library
    • Become a borrower
    • Catalogue
    • Collections
    • Ask a librarian
    • Copyright enquiries
  • Learning
    • SQA set texts
    • Learning resources
    • Designing sensory poetry activities
    • 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
    • Entropie Books
    • Stichill Marigold Press
    • Poems for Doctors, Nurses & Teachers
    • Scottish Poetry
    • Poetry Pamphlet Cards
    • Help
  • About us
    • Our story
    • Our people
    • Company Papers & Policies
    • Our projects
    • Our building
    • FAQs
    • Find us
  • Support us
    • Become a Friend
    • Donate
  • Blog
Shopping BagShopping Bag
Ask a librarian
  • Home
  • >
  • Poetry
  • >
  • despair
Donate Donate icon Ask a Librarian Ask a Librarian icon

despair

To ⁠— - by Muriel Stuart

{ Poem }

When I am old and my quick blood is chilled,And all my thoughts are grey as my grey hair, When I am slow and dull, and do not care, And all the strife and storm of Life are stilled ; Then if one carelessly should speak your name It will go through my body like […]

Strathconon - by Ian A. Olson

{ Poem }

When you took the autumn to London
/ And left me to burrow into winter
/ I said they could pack up Strathconon
/ Box up…

A Memory of Death - by Alan Bold

{ Poem }

Nineteen fifty six was a momentous year,
/ The year of Suez…

The Peace of Wild Things - by Wendell Berry

{ Poem }

When despair for the world grows in me
/ and I wake in the night at the least sound
/ in fear of what…

In the Fishmongers - by Tessa Ransford

{ Poem }

All over the fish / and the knife that continues to work / and the marble slab / and her…

German Prisoners - by Joseph Lee

{ Poem }

When first I saw you in the curious street,
/ Like some platoon of soldier ghosts in grey,
/ My mad impulse was…

Sonnet viii - by William Drummond of Hawthornden

{ Poem }

My Lute, bee as thou wast when thou didst grow
/ With thy greene Mother in some shadie Grove,
/ When immelodious Windes but…

From the Line - by Roderick Watson Kerr

{ Poem }

Have you seen men come from the Line,
/ Tottering, doddering, as if bad wine
/ Had drugged their very souls;
/ Their…

Psalm Eighty-Eight Blues - by Diana Hendry

{ Poem }

Lord, when I’m speechless
/ when something – not just sorrow
/ but under that – a dull, numb, nameless dreich
/ about the heart I…

  • 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