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Sydney Goodsir Smith

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Name
  
Sydney Smith


Role
  
Poet

Sydney Goodsir Smith Sydney Goodsir Smith Poetry Scottish Poetry Library


Died
  
January 15, 1975, Edinburgh, United Kingdom

Books
  
The Wallace, a triumph in five acts, Carotid Cornucopius

Sydney Goodsir Smith (26 October 1915 – 15 January 1975) was a Scottish poet, artist, dramatist and novelist. He wrote poetry in literary Scots often referred to as Lallans (Lowlands dialect), and was a major figure of the Scottish Renaissance.

Contents

Sydney Goodsir Smith The Drawings of Sydney Goodsir Smith Poet Hendry 9781862320352

Life

He was born in Wellington, New Zealand, and moved to Edinburgh with his family in 1928. He was at school at Malvern College. He went to Edinburgh University to study medicine, but abandoned that, and started to read history at Oriel College, Oxford; whence he was expelled, but managed to complete a degree. He also claimed to have studied art in Italy, wine in France and mountains in Bavaria.

His first poetry collection of many, Skail Wind, was published in 1941. Carotid Cornucopius (1947) was a comic novel about Edinburgh. His A Short Introduction to Scottish Literature, based on four broadcast talks, was published in 1951. His play The Wallace formed part of the 1960 Edinburgh Festival.

Smith was also associated with the editorial board for the Lines Review magazine.

Under the Eildon tree (1948), a long poem in 24 parts, is considered by many his finest work; The Grace of God and the Meth-Drinker is a much-anthologised poem. Kynd Kittock's land (1964) was a commission of a poem to be televised by the BBC.

He died in the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh after a heart attack outside a newsagents on Dundas Street in Edinburgh and was buried in Dean Cemetery in the northern 20th century section, towards the north-west. His wife, Hazel Williamson, lies with him.

Memorials

He is commemorated in the "Makars' Court" a section of James Court off the Lawnmarket on the Royal Mile.

Works

  • Skail Wind - poems, Edinburgh, The Chalmers press, 1941
  • The Wanderer, and other poems, Edinburgh, Oliver and Boyd, 1943
  • The Deevil’s Waltz, Glasgow, W. MacLellan, 1946
  • Selected Poems, Edinburgh, published for The Saltire Society by Oliver and Boyd, 1947
  • A Short Introduction to Scottish Literature, Serif Books, 1951
  • So Late into the Night - fifty lyrics, 1944-1948, with a preface by Edith Sitwell, London, P. Russell, 1952
  • Robert Ferguson, 1750-1774, Edinburgh, Nelson, 1952
  • Orpheus and Eurydice - a dramatic poem, Edinburgh, M. Macdonald, 1955
  • Figs and Thistles, Edinburgh, Oliver and Boyd, 1959
  • The Wallace, a triumph in five acts, Edinburgh, Oliver and Boyd, 1960
  • Carotid Cornucopius, caird of the Cannon Gait and voyeur of the Outlook Touer, Edinburgh, M. Macdonald, 1964
  • Kynd Kittock’s land, Edinburgh, M. Macdonald, 1965
  • Fifteen Poems and a Play, Edinburgh, Southside, 1969
  • Collected Poems, 1941-1975, with an introduction by Hugh McDiarmid, London, John Calder, 1975
  • The Drawings of Sydney Goodsir Smith, poet, collected by Ian Begg, edited by Joy Hendry, Edinburgh, Chapman Press, on behalf of The New Auk Society, 1998

    • References

    Sydney Goodsir Smith Wikipedia
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