MacCaig, Norman Alexander

▪ 1997

      Scottish poet (b. Nov. 14, 1910, Edinburgh, Scot.—d. Jan. 23, 1996, Edinburgh), was one of the most important Scottish men of letters of the 20th century. After graduating from the University of Edinburgh, MacCaig held various teaching positions, mostly in Edinburgh. His early published works, which he later disavowed, were Far Cry (1943) and The Inward Eye (1946). With the publication of Riding Lights in 1955, his characteristic poetic voice—recalling the polished, metaphysical elegance of John Donne—was first revealed. Many of his images were taken from the natural world, and his poetry was noted for its wit, humour, apt observation, and command of metaphor, though he claimed, as he got older, to have grown to hate metaphors. He considered life on a small scale and, having found his voice, produced a number of volumes of verse, including The Sinai Sort (1957), A Common Grace (1960), A Round of Applause (1962), Measures (1965), Rings on a Tree (1968), A Man in My Position (1969), and several later volumes of selected poems. A volume of his collected poems was published in 1985.

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