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Poets' Pub » Sorley Maclean

17 poems for 6d

A description of the second edition

17 Poems for 6d appeared 'late January or early February 1940', and 'a second, corrected edition appeared a couple of months later', although the date of the first edition is given as 'December 1939' in Whyte's recent edition of Dain do Eimhir. The SPL copy is the second edition.

Soft cover, 28pp.
Cover: brown print on off-white paper, text as follows:

17 Poems for 6d in Gaelic, Scots & English
Somhairle Mc Ghill-eathain and Robert Garioch
The Chalmers Press, Edinburgh, 1940

In his later publications the Gaelic form of the name was given as MacGill-Eain.
p.1, title page
p.2, colophon text as follows:

Second edition with some alterations
Printed & published in Scotland
by the Chalmers Press
11 Randolph Place
Edinburgh

The booklet was effectively self-published by Robert Garioch.
pp.3-4, contents. Although the poems by each author are interspersed throughout, on these pages they are listed by language and author, as follows:

in Scots by Robert Garioch;
in Gaelic by Somhairle Mc Ghill-eathain ;
in English by Robert Garioch.

pp.5-28, the poems.
There are six poems in Scots, and two in English, by Garioch; eight poems in Gaelic by MacLean; and a Scots translation by Garioch of one of MacLean's poems (the other seven appear in Gaelic only).

The poems appear in the following sequence:
Prolegomena (RG), pp.5-7
Tri Slighean (SM), p.8
An Cuilthionn (Opening of Part II) (SM), pp.9-11
Peeries an Buckies (RG), p.12
Fi'baw (RG), pp.13-14
Dain do Eimhir XXIX (SM), p.15
Ant-Eilean (SM), pp.16-17
Eros (RG), p.18
Quiet Passage (RG), p.19
Ghaisties (RG), p.20
Sonnet (RG), p.21
Dain do Eimhir IV (SM), p.22
Dain do Eimhir XIV, Reic Anama (SM), p.23
Dain do Eimhir III (SM), p.24
Echo in Scots, from Dain do Eimhir III (RG), p.25
A' Chorra-Ghritheach (SM), p.26
Finale in English (RG), p.28

© Ken Cockburn 2002

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