Cover of this anthology is a closeup of Rev. Robert Walker skating on the Duddingston Loch, from a detail of a wonderful painting by Henry Raeburn, now in the National Gallery of Scotland.

The contents in the collection include verses, balladry, and folk "songs", without crossing over into prose, story-telling, or other forms of literature. The language itself is English -- done without irony, and with a nice elaboration on the perduring conflict, which really IS ironic-- between Edwin Muir and Hugh MacDiarmid, "the two most gifted writers of their age" who became irreconcilable enemies. [50]. The editor/collector is himself a gifted talent, linguist, and academic, Tom Scott.

The fact that this collection of "Scottish Verse" is an example of English literature, and specifically English poetry, while still being Gaelic poetry, reflects what T.S. Eliot observed, that such is the intimacy of the British Isles, the revitalization of Scottish poetry was a direct influence on English poetry. [49] At the outset of a Scots identity, there is King James I (1394-1437), the paradoxical Stewart prisoner-king, and an extract of his "Cantus" Kingis Quair is included here. [63]

I personally enjoyed reading aloud the work of figures unfamiliar to legend and notoriety. While Scott, Burns and Dunbar are well-represented, this resource is designed to scour and expose verse from high and lowland courts and kailyairds (gardens). A lot to Luve in this collection.

The largest section in the collection is that of the ballads. These include bauds, versing stories, and folk songs. The final section is "Modern Folk Songs", although most of these are neither. Time and Taste wait for no Editor. ( )

A classic collection. ( )