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Edwin Morgan: a life of poetry

The death of a poet is seldom recognised as a national loss. Attending the recent funeral of Edwin Morgan, however, were the First Minister of Scotland, politicians, friends, academics, writers, artists, students, and the media. Flurries of activity on Facebook and blogs attested to the 90 year-old poet's continued impact on younger generations.

To the end of his life, he remained a prodigy, but an accessible one - a poet whom many Scots had actually encountered, in one or other of his varied voices. He might sound like the Loch Ness Monster, a Mercurian, Pelagius or a midge, or himself. But whether through poems widely taught in primary or secondary classrooms, or seeing him on one of his thousands of school and community visits, or attending his lectures, plays or performances over the years, readers felt connected with him. So the loss was felt keenly.

He had been struggling against illness for ten years. And yet a new book, Dreams and Other Nightmares (Mariscat, 2010), was launched to celebrate his 90th birthday. Its most recent poems date from 2009. Just a few days before his passing, I had informed him that Beyond the Last Dragon (Sandstone Press, 2010) had finally been sent to the printers. This is my biography of the poet, written with his support. Its title refers to what he had called ‘the last dragon' of cancer, the final enemy that he fought for ten years with every creative sinew of his being.

In a sense, he had lived not just a single or even a double life but a series of them - as artist and academic; as the mild-mannered radical republican who accepted royal decorations; as an avant-garde experimentalist in concrete and sound poetry who excelled in the sonnet form; as an extrovert and lively loner whose charm was matched only by an inner core of steely determination.

He had a perhaps characteristically Scottish combination of wild or iconoclastic energy (even when playfully expressed in concrete or sound experiments) with a moral seriousness on socio-political issues. This, as well as his ventriloquist's skill in speaking through personae, made him difficult for some readers to hold firm to. Writing his biography, I was surprised by the sheer struggle he had to become successful. His first major collection, The Second Life (1968) did not appear until he was 48 years old. Earlier, although well known as a translator of Russian, French, Italian, Old English and Hungarian poetry, he could only watch as rival Scottish poets gained London publishers.

Then the young and struggling Carcanet Press took him on. This was the start of a fascinating and often touching relationship between poet and publisher. Michael Schmidt excelled in re-shaping Morgan's first ideas for collections - From Glasgow to Saturn (1973) and Rites of Passage (1976) in particular bear his stamp. The relationship of poet and publisher was vital and creative - they co-wrote poems published as Grafts/Takes (1983).

Edwin Morgan published a great deal - his archive is available from the wonderful Edwin Morgan Archive at the Scottish Poetry Library.

What should be selected as key works to read? Apart from Collected Poems (1990) and Collected Translations (1996), if I were asked for a top ten publications they would be these:

The Second Life (1968) for its production values and its local, international and concrete poems from his 1960s awakening.

From Glasgow to Saturn (1974) for the reach of its social, technological and sound poetry.

The New Divan (1977) for its intriguing title poem of war, love and loss, and its final ‘Unfinished Poems' for Veronica Forrest-Thomson.

Sonnets from Scotland (1984) for formal and adventurous time-travelling poetry of a possible Scottish republic.

Eternal Moment: Selected Poems of Sándor Weöres (1988) for 36 translations of the Hungarian poet that Morgan esteemed most highly.

Cathures (2002) for its exploration of self and city, through the Demon sequence and historical Glaswegian voices.

A Book of Lives (2007) for its honest examination of the place of love in his life.

Attila József: Sixty Poems (2001) for its translations of another Hungarian poet with whom he identified strongly.

Tales from Baron Munchausen (2005) for its tall tales.

Dreams and Other Nightmares (2010) for hitherto undiscovered poems new and old.

Others, of course, might choose differently from Morgan's deep treasure chest.

James McGonigal is a friend and literary executor of Edwin Morgan and has just published his biography of Edwin Morgan, Beyond the Last Dragon. An emeritus professor of the University of Glasgow, he has combined professional work in teacher education with editing, research and publications in British modernism and literary relations between Scotland and Ireland. His own poetry has won prizes in both countries.