Sorley Maclean
Northern House, Newcastle, United Kingdom, 1971, English
Poetry
ISBN: 9780900570025
On 1 book list
Ian Ritchie

I discovered the writings of Sorley MacLean during a short working holiday in Raasay, a finger of an island lying between the Isle of Skye and the mainland. MacLean was a poet who wrote in Gaelic about his home and the struggles of the islanders during the 18th- and 19th-century clearings, but in this volume he wrote about his inner conflict and angst during the Spanish Civil war and World War II—whether to go and fight or to stay home and alive with his loves. His moral dilemma set in a historic and social context is so beautifully expressed in this book of love lyrics.

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