I amna fou’ sae muckle as tired – deid dune. It’s gey and hard wark coupin’ gless for gless Wi’ Cruivie and Gilsanquhar and the like, And I’m no’ juist as bauld as aince I wes. If you recognize the first stanza from Hugh MacDiarmid’s 1926 poem ‘A Drunk Man Looks At A Thistle’ you may also […]
Tag: poem
‘Lament of the Lowly Rusty Tea Strainer’
Drink in, if you will, these highlights from the poem “Lament of the Lowly Rusty Tea Strainer,” by Fred J. Johnston, published in the journal Laboratory Medicine (Volume 11, Issue 6, 1 June 1980): …So oft have I been clogged with crud That’s mixed with tarry clotted blood. I’ve often seen a tapeworm dead And helped […]
‘Stethoscope’ – and other medical poems
If you’re looking for poetic material with medical themes, the pages of the journal Medical Humanities are a good place to begin. The publication regularly features medically inspired poems – turn for example to Volume 37, Issue 1, which features : ● ‘Stethoscope’ (by Anne K Merritt) Here’s an extract : “She has wandered with […]
The Tay Bridge Disaster, remembered on its anniversary
Today, December 28, is the anniversary of the Tay Bridge Disaster. The tragedy is now remembered in connection with the disaster of the poem it inspired. William McGonagall (whose family name, at least, is familar to readers of the Harry Potter books, because his grave is in the cemetery near the coffee shop where the first […]