The literature of the Highlanders : $b a history of Gaelic literature from the earliest times to the present dayMacNeill, Nigel
History
The literature of the Highlanders : $b a history of Gaelic literature from the earliest times to the present day
MacNeill, Nigel
Scottish Gaelic literature -- History and criticism
Morrison, originally a blacksmith to trade, and latterly a Free
Church catechist in Harris, is one of the most powerful and
ingenious of the bards. I do not know in any language a poem like
his _Duin og is seann Duin’ agam_ in its subtlety of conception, its
felicity of expression, and its cunning weavings and turnings of
verses. Its theme is the “holy war” in the Christian soul, which he
treats not at all in the style of Bunyan, but in quite an original
fashion. It was published in 1835, again in America along with many
of his other poems. His poetry shows that he was profoundly exercised
and interested in the spiritual problems and difficulties of the
Christian life. Few men ever obtained a deeper insight into the
human heart, and fewer still possessed equally great poetic gifts
for uttering what has been seen and felt. A good edition of his
whole works is much required; and it was once hoped that his son,
Dr Morrison of Edinburgh, would satisfy the wishes of his father’s
admirers. The bard died in 1852, sixty-two years of age, before any
of his works in book-form appeared.
Usquba has been the theme of frequent laudations by the secular
bards; the following verses are from a preaching poem of a very
different strain:—
Ye friends whom I cherish, nurse not in your mind
That I sing in this song from a motive unkind;
My theme is the drink-plague—that ill-unconfined,
That feeds on our ravage and ruin.
Ye cannot dislike though the satire be keen;
For disgrace, woe, and want are where’er it has been;
And spirits immortal enslaved may be seen
Its road to the devil pursuing.
Degraded is he who delights in its breath,
For its trade has been plann’d in the regions beneath;
Its curse has been wed to consumption and death
In bodies’ and souls’ undoing.
REV. DUNCAN MACCALLUM.
This was an able minister of the Church of Scotland, who was for
some time settled at Arisaig. _Collath_ is a poem of the heroic
kind, which Mackenzie had inserted in “The Beauties” as a specimen
of ancient poetry! Mr MacCallum published it first anonymously, as
he did another booklet in which he acknowledged himself to be the
author of _Collath_. His poetry shows fair poetic gifts. We meet with
MacCallum again as the author of a Church History.
REV. DUNCAN MACLEAN.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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