Books: Beneath Troubled Skies; Poems of Scotland at War, 1914-1918

In among the several other publications produced to coincide with the centenary of World War One, ‘Beneath Troubled Skies; Poems of Scotland at War 1914-1918’ might be overlooked, which would be a mistake, as well as a pity.

More than an anthology of poetry produced in response to those events, ‘Beneath Troubled Skies’ offers a year-by-year commentary by Yvonne McEwan that helps both to contextualise the poems and to increase our understanding of each of them.

Although there is a certain unavoidable overlap with the volume of war poetry by Scots produced by the Association for Scottish Literary Studies – ‘From the Line’, whose compass is larger, covering both World Wars.

Whereas the latter opens with alphabetically with Marion Angus’ ‘Remembrance Day’, taking us as it were to the end at the start, ‘Beneath Troubled Skies’ chronological approach reminds us of the early optimism of 1914, exemplified perhaps by ’Restalrig’ (J. B. Symons) ’To The Bantam Brigade (Rosebery) Royal Scots’, sold to help fund one of many volunteer battalions.
Even as early as 1915, however, the tone begins to change, and it is among the several Gaelic poets included that thoughtfulness becomes most pronounced, as in Donald Macleod’s ‘Oran a’Phuinnsein’ – ‘Song of the Poison’ on the terrors of a gas attack.

As with any anthology, it becomes invidious to mention specific poets, but Lizzie Macgregor is to be congratulated for her inclusion of several women poets other than the familiar. The republication of poems by May Wedderburn Cannan and Mary Symon are particularly welcome, giving a female counterpoise to what is all too often regarded as an exclusively male poetic preoccupation.

Nevertheless, it’s both unsurprising and fitting that the bulk of the poems included reflect the voices of both rank and file and their immediate superiors, whose wars were up close and often very personal. Many, such as J. E. Stewart and E. A. Macintosh, did not live to practice their considerable poetic gifts in peacetime.

Familial pietas, however, constrains this reviewer to mention J. B. Salmond, co-editor with Wilfred Owen of Craiglockhart Hospital’s magazine ‘Hydra’. His ‘Any Private to Any Private’ points towards both the vernacular strain in the post-war Scottish literary renaissance, and to a growing sense of Scottish identity.

Something more than simply a gathering of ‘war poets’, ‘Beneath Troubled Skies’ offers us work by William Souter, Neil Munro and Pittendrich Macgillivray as well as those more particularly associated with the period, such as Charles Hamilton Sorley. Modest yet hugely ambitious in its attempt to epitomise Scottish poetry not only in a time of crisis but also of change, ‘Beneath Troubled Skies’ fulfils that very Scottish dictum of being ‘guid gear in sma bulk’.

Beneath Troubled Skies, Poems of Scotand at War 1914-1918, ed. Lizzie Macgregor, with commentary by Yvonne McEwan, foreward by Hew Strachan. Scottish Poetry Library £12.99 ISBN 978-1-84697-332-1