Sydney Goodsir Smith

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Sydney Goodsir Smith (26 October 1915 – 15 January 1975) was a Scottish poet, artist, dramatist and novelist. He wrote poetry in literary Scots often referred to as Lallans, and was a major figure of the Scottish Renaissance.

He was born in Wellington, New Zealand, and moved to Edinburgh with his family in 1928. He was at school at Malvern College. He went to Edinburgh University to study medicine, but abandoned that, and started to read history at Oriel College, Oxford; whence he was expelled, but managed to complete a degree.

His first poetry collection of many, Skail Wind, was published in 1941. Carotid Cornucopius (1947) was a comic novel about Edinburgh. His play The Wallace formed part of the 1960 Edinburgh Festival.

Under the Eildon tree (1948), a long poem in 24 parts, is considered by many his finest work; The Grace of God and the Meth-Drinker is a much-anthologised poem. Kynd Kittock's land (1964) was a commission of a poem to be televised by the BBC.

He died of a heart attack outside a newsagents on Dundas Street in Edinburgh and was buried in Dean Cemetery. He is now commemorated in the Makars' Court.

Works

Skail wind - poems, Edinburgh, The Chalmers press, 1941
The wanderer, and other poems, Edinburgh, Oliver and Boyd, 1943
The deevil’s waltz, Glasgow, W. MacLellan, 1946
Selected poems, Edinburgh, published for The Saltire Society by Oliver and Boyd, 1947
So late into the night - fifty lyrics, 1944-1948, with a preface by Edith Sitwell, London, P. Russell, 1952
Robert Ferguson, 1750-1774, Edinburgh, Nelson, 1952
Orpheus and Eurydice - a dramatic poem, Edinburgh, M. Macdonald, 1955
Figs and thistles, Edinburgh, Oliver and Boyd, 1959
The Wallace, a triumph in five acts, Edinburgh, Oliver and Boyd, 1960
Carotid Cornucopius, caird of the Cannon Gait and voyeur of the Outlook Touer, Edinburgh, M. Macdonald, 1964
Kynd Kittock’s land, Edinburgh, M. Macdonald, 1965
Fifteen poems and a play, Edinburgh, Southside, 1969
Collected poems, 1941-1975, with an introduction by Hugh McDiarmid, London, John Calder, 1975
The drawings of Sydney Goodsir Smith, poet, collected by Ian Begg, edited by Joy Hendry, Edinburgh, Chapman Press, on behalf of The New Auk Society, 1998

References

v t e Scots makars

c. 1370 – c. 1460	John Barbour Huchoun James I Sir Gilbert Hay Andrew of Wyntoun Richard Holland

c. 1460 – c. 1560	Blind Hary Robert Henryson Walter Kennedy William Dunbar Gavin Douglas David Lyndsay William Stewart

c. 1560 – 17th century	Alexander Scott Alexander Montgomerie James VI Castalian Band William Fowler Alexander Hume Robert Sempill Robert Sempill the younger Francis Sempill

18th century – 20th century	Allan Ramsay Robert Fergusson Robert Burns Robert Louis Stevenson Alicia Ann Spottiswoode William Soutar Robert Garioch Sydney Goodsir Smith Tom Scott George Campbell Hay Alexander Scott Hamish Henderson William Neill

Official appointment (from 2004)	Edwin Morgan Liz Lochhead

Authority control	VIAF: 28314603 ISNI: 0000 0001 2125 5908 SUDOC: 110834127

Persondata
Name	Smith, Sydney Goodsir
Alternative names
Short description	New Zealand writer
Date of birth	26 October 1915
Place of birth
Date of death	15 January 1975
Place of death

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