Hugh MacDiarmid, A Drunk Man Looks at the Thistle

Kirsten Matthews (University of Glasgow); Alan Riach (University of Glasgow)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.3: Scottish Writing and Culture, 400-present.
Vol. editors: Kate Ash-Irisarri (University of Edinburgh), Daniel Cook (University of Dundee), J. Derrick McClure (University of Aberdeen)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1926

Places

Scotland (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Poetry (any)

Resources

First published in 1926, Hugh MacDiarmid’s A Drunk Man Looks at the Thistle was to continue a literary campaign that he had already begun with the publication of short lyrics in Scots, and with the profusion of propagandist articles, pamphlets and magazines he had produced in support of the “Scottish Literary Renaissance”. A Drunk Man Looks at the Thistle made a renewed claim for the validity of Scots as a contemporary literary language, and thus for the definition of a place for Scotland and Scottish culture in the international artistic spectrum. Advertising the as yet unpublished (and uncompleted) poem in the Glasgow Herald in December 1925, MacDiarmid announced the creation of:

a long …

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3336 words

Citation: Matthews, Kirsten, Alan Riach. "A Drunk Man Looks at the Thistle". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 27 July 2005 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=10057, accessed 25 November 2024.]

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