At this time of reflection upon the commemoration of the Great War and its impact, I recommend From the Line: Scottish War Poetry 1914–1945, published this year for the Association for Scottish Literary Studies, writes John Ross Maclean.
This fine volume includes poems by John Buchan, Violet Jacob and Neil Munro, who also feature in the superb commemorative exhibition currently in the Scottish National Portrait Gallery.
Of these, perhaps the most moving is Violet Jacob's tender address to her only son, Harry, who was killed aged 21 at the Battle of the Somme (see below). Jacob (1863–1946), who was married to a peripatetic army officer, was the the incomparable poet of the landscape and people of Angus, and a fine exponent of the Doric Revival.
She is represented in the SNPG exhibition by an imposing head-and-shoulders bronze sculpture.
[David Goldie and Roderick Watson, eds, From the Line: Scottish War Poetry 1914–1945 (ASLS Annual Volumes, 2014), hbk, £12.50]