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
    • Poetry Ambassadors 2020
    • Best Scottish Poems
    • Podcasts
    • Poetry and Mindfulness
    • Our National Poet
    • 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
    • What’s On
    • Venue hire
  • Shop
    • Scottish Poetry
    • Poetry Pamphlet Cards
    • Pocket Poets
    • Scotland’s Makar
    • 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
  • >
  • dying
Donate Donate icon Ask a Librarian Ask a Librarian icon

dying

At the End - by Andrew Dodds

{ Poem }

When my last song is finished,
/ And my heart has lost its fire,
/ When passion is diminished,
/ And dead is all desire,
/ I pray…

Sala de Esperanza - by Lawrence Hergott, MD

{ Poem }

The sign on the hospital wall
/ identifying the space
/ begins with a Spanish phrase—
/ sala de espera,
/ waiting room.
/
/ A more symbolic phrase
/ may have deeper…

from At Maldon - by J.O. Morgan

{ Poem }

Waves beating up against cliffs.
/ Cliffs holding hard against waves.
/
/ …

Visiting Hour - by Norman MacCaig

{ Poem }

The hospital smell
/ combs my nostrils
/ as they go bobbing along
/ green and yellow corridors.
/
/ What seems a corpse
/ is trundled into a lift and…

Memorial - by Norman MacCaig

{ Poem }

Everywhere she dies. Everywhere I go she dies.
/ No sunrise, no city square, no lurking beautiful mountain
/ but has her death in…

Bucket - by Alison Prince

{ Poem }

Phrases for the end are throwaway.
/ ‘Drop off your twig.’
/ I quite like that –
/ cock an eye at heaven in…

1936 - by Jim C. Wilson

{ Poem }

Oh Lorca, did skeletons show
/ gold teeth to you
/
/ when men held you down
/ in their terrible passion,
/
/ thrust the rifle deep in your…

The Death of Old Men - by Non-Scottish anonymous

{ Poem }

Old Henri is dying.
/ Children play tag in the dust.
/ And we, whose world is next,
/ sit with him under the tree
/ and watch…

It Was Like This: You Were Happy - by Jane Hirshfield

{ Poem }

It was like this:
/ you were happy, then you were sad,
/ then happy again, then not.
/
/ It went on.
/ You were innocent or you…

Winged Skye - by Donald Smith

{ Poem }

When this body comes to die,
/ Set me on the headland high,
/ Where sun and rain go marching by,
/ Raven lord of wave…

Requiem - by Robert Louis Stevenson

{ Poem }

Under the wide and starry sky,
/ Dig the grave and let me die.
/ Glad did I live and gladly die,
/ …

Above Daldowie, 1990 - by Valerie Thornton

{ Poem }

Gran is a bird.
/
/ Ten years it took
/ for the dragging flesh to dissolve
/ and the bones to grow thin and light.
/
/ Her hands…

1 2 Next
  • 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