21L.007  World Literatures

Hi,
for interest, I have posted an extract of a classic modern Gaelic poem by the poet Sorley MacLean (1911-1996) in the original, and with the author's own translation into English.  This should give you a brief impression of the characteristic manner of such poetry--an option for an important minority of Scots poets down the centuries.
Willie

Hi,
we'll finish off Hugh MacDiarmid and move on to Hamish Henderson and Tom Leonard.  Remember what we're looking for in all these texts is the language the poets are.  Are these poets writing in Scots, or in English?  Is there any difference in the subjects they choose each for? 
Willie

Hi,
Subject Evaluations are now open at http://web.mit.edu/subjectevaluation/
It only takes a few minutes to fill these in, and it would be good to get 100% return.
So we'll set aside some time in class on Thursday for you to do this.  Remember to bring your devices.
Willie

For Tuesday 2^nd December, I want us to consider the poems of Hugh MacDiarmid posted to the Stellar site. Since a part of our task will be consider MacDiarmid’s debt to the older Scottish poetry, it would be helpful if you were to have some familiarity with the styles of Barbour, Henrysoun and Dunbar from the extracts in the ‘Materials’ section of the Stellar Site posted under ‘Some Classic Moments in Older Scottish Poetry and Song’.

Burns material for Tuesday: you will find under ‘Scottish Poetry’ in the ‘Materials’ section of the Stellar site, a link to the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography entry for Robert Burns and five of his poems and songs selected to indicate his characteristic manner.  If in doubt about items of lexis, consult the Dictionary of the Scots Language (DSL) as we were doing on Thursday.  I also want you to listen to the various performances of Burns’s songs included in this section, i.e. Ewan MacColl singing ‘Such a Parcel of Rogues in a Nation’; The Corries singing ‘Parcel of Rogues’;  The several different versions of ‘Scots Wha Hae’ should alse be considered (six in all).  As you do this latter task, think about context and about how this might affect the message of the song.

Willie