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  • World War II
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World War II

The Poem without a Title - by Jack Low

{ Poem }

I’ve lost a lot of things worth while my pleasure and my fun,
And the days of my captivity pass slowly one by one,
But as I sit in loneliness, each day more plain I see,
My body may be captive but my heart and mind are free.

Murmansk - by James Sinclair

{ Poem }

He minded dem getting torpedoed i da White Sea,
hit blew da boo clean aff.
Da Bulksheid, he held though an dey limpit inta Arcangel,
whaur shu wis lashed ta da peir, an micht still be dere yet.

Bringing Them Home With the Saints - by Brian Johnstone

{ Poem }

Harder
to find in the soundscape is our man,
the bell of his horn sanctifying the notes
in remembrance, or joy that the damned
thing is over

It Was Easier - by Ruthven Todd

{ Poem }

Now over the map that took ten million years
/ Of rain and sun to crust like boiler-slag,
/ The lines of fighting men…

Good Angel - by T. S. Law

{ Poem }

Ten thousand bullets fired,
/ all the angry wasps in the world,
/ and devil the one to sting me:
/ I’m the lucky…

Polemical Elegy for Reinhardt Heydrich - by Tom Buchan

{ Poem }

You were being driven down to Prague
/ when a fellow in blue dungarees started shooting
/ so you stood up beside the chauffeur…

After Lunch, Ekali - by Douglas Young

{ Poem }

September 1st, 1939.
/
/ Cicalas burst the air, a heat-haze quivers
/ on the pale plain, the glittering…

For Alasdair - by Douglas Young

{ Poem }

Standan here on a fogg-yirdit stane,
/ drappan the bricht flees on the broun spate,
/ I’m thinkan o ye, liggan thonder…

Latha Foghair - by Sorley MacLean / Somhairle MacGillEain

{ Poem }

’S mi air an t-slios ud
latha foghair,
na sligean a’ sianail mum chluasan
agus sianar marbh ri mo ghualainn

Women of the Happy Island (extract) - by Joseph Macleod

{ Poem }

(The series of 47 soliloquies is about the women left behind on the
/ Isle of Barra during the Second World…

A Night Fire Call - by Sydney Tremayne

{ Poem }

Dawn breaks and I discover myself
/ On top of a wall much higher than I imagined
/ Which is on top of a…

The 51st Highland Division’s Farewell to Sicily - by Hamish Henderson

{ Poem }

The pipie is dozie, the pipie is fey,
/ He winna come roon’ for his vino the day.
/ The sky ow’r Messina is…

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Scottish Poetry Library
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The Scottish Poetry Library is a registered charity (No. SCO23311).
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