Norman MacCaig

Norman MacCaig ‘If you want a book which will last forever … get Norman MacCaig’s Collected Poems.’ Glasgow Evening Times

Norman MacCaig’s Background was born in Edinburgh in 1910. Notes Photograph of Norman MacCaig reproduced by permission of Gordon Wright.

Norman MacCaig’s Background Although Norman MacCaig spent all his childhood and his later life in Scotland's capital, his mother's Highland past was a great influence on the young poet. MacCaig's mother was from Scalpay, Harris. The Gaelic heritage inherited on visits to his mother's family on the islands was to have a lasting effect on him.

Norman MacCaig’s Background During the war Norman MacCaig refused to fight because he did not want to kill people who he felt were just the same as him. He spent time in various prisons because of his pacifist views. Having spent years educating young children, he then went on to teach university students when in 1967 he became the first Fellow in Creative Writing at Edinburgh University. MacCaig later held a similar post while teaching at the University of Stirling.

Norman MacCaig’s Background As he became older, MacCaig’s fame spread, and he received such honours as the OBE and the Queen's Medal for Poetry. By the time of his death in January 1996, MacCaig was known widely as ‘the grand old man of Scottish poetry’. Notes Photograph of Norman MacCaig reproduced by permission of Gordon Wright.

Wondering how long it takes to write a poem? Notes Photograph of Norman MacCaig with his good friend Aly Bain reproduced by permission of Gordon Wright. Discussion Point This is a good place to ask learners what their definition of poetry is. Whilst their definitions will not all be the same, there will be some similarities. Use the fact that you will receive a whole range of answers as a way into a discussion about poetry interpretation and the fact that there is no right answer. Everyone brings his/her own thoughts, experiences, ideas and interpretations to it. Suggested Activity Ask learners to look up the meaning of both ‘poetry’ and ‘poem’ in a dictionary, and compare this to their own earlier definitions. Show them a selection of poems from the teaching pack and get them to discuss their own responses to the diversity of styles. When asked how long it took him to write a poem, Norman MacCaig said: ‘About two fags’.

‘Country Dance’ The room whirled and coloured and figured itself with dancers … And there, in the band, an old fiddler sawing away in the privacy of music. He bowed lefthanded and his right hand was the wrong way round. Impossible. But the jig bounced, the grace notes sparked on the surface of the tune. The odd man out, when it came to music, was the odd man in. There’s a lesson here, I thought … Notes ‘Country Dance’ by Norman MacCaig reproduced by permission of Polygon, an imprint of Birlinn Ltd. Discussion Point What is the lesson? Get learners to discuss amongst themselves their own responses. Suggested Activity Take one word from a poem or the title of a poem. Let’s use the poem ‘Country Dance’, and the word ‘dancers’ as an example. Write the word ‘dancers’ on a flipchart and ask learners for one word they associate with it. Write their replies around this central word. Responses might include ‘fun’, ‘music’, ‘speed’, ‘grace’, ‘harmony’. Now ask learners to write short sentences beginning ‘Dancers are …’, including the words they have suggested. Examples might be: ‘Dancers are … full of fun’, ‘… in time to music’, ‘… are linked in harmony’, ‘… all shapes and sizes’. When you have between four and 12 short sentences you can then create a group poem such as this: ‘Dancers’ Full of fun Linked in harmony All shapes and sizes In time to music … You can make the sentences as short or long as you like and can change the order to create different effects. This exercise can be really good fun for learners, and they can see the results instantly.

‘Frogs’ Frogs sit more solid than anything sits. In mid-leap they are parachutists falling in a free fall. They die on roads with arms across their chests and heads high.   Notes ‘Frogs’ by Norman MacCaig reproduced by permission of Polygon, an imprint of Birlinn Ltd.

‘Frogs’ I love frogs that sit like Buddha, that fall without parachutes, that die like Italian tenors. Above all, I love them because, pursued in water, they never panic so much that they fail to make stylish triangles with their ballet dancer's legs. Discussion Point Ask learners to pick out any phrases or descriptions that they particularly like, and get them to tell the rest of the group why they are attracted to them. Poetry often makes the familiar unfamiliar. In the poem ‘Frogs’, for example, the creatures described may seem fairly common – dull even. But the way MacCaig compares them to something else makes the familiar more interesting and helps us to look at things in a different way. Ask learners to select an everyday object or an animal, and then think of many different ways of describing it, encouraging them to make what is familiar unfamiliar.

‘Basking Shark’ To stub an oar on a rock where none should be, To have it rise with a slounge out of the sea Is a thing that happened once (too often) to me. But not too often – though enough, I count as gain That once I met, on a sea tin-tacked with rain, That room-sized monster with a matchbox brain. Notes ‘Basking Shark’ by Norman MacCaig reproduced by permission of Polygon, an imprint of Birlinn Ltd.

‘Basking Shark’ He displaced more than the water. He shoggled me Centuries back – this decadent townee Shook on a wrong branch of his family tree. Swish up the dirt and, when it settles, a spring Is all the clearer. I saw me, in one fling, Emerging from the slime of everything. So who’s the monster? The thought made me grow pale. For twenty seconds while, sail after sail, The tall fin slid away and then the tail.