POEM OF THE DAY

A splendid new anthology offers A Year of Scottish Poems, chosen by Gaby

Morgan and with foreword by Jackie Kay. There’s a scintillating range of material, from Robert Burns and Sir Walter Scott to contemporary poets. The book has children in mind but its contents are for all ages. Here is the poem for January 31, by Anon, travelling in his imagination and by train. (Macmillan’s Children’s Books, £12.99, paperback.)

I SHALL LEAVE TONIGHT

FROM EUSTON

I shall leave tonight from Euston By the seven-thirty train,

And from Perth in the early morning I shall see the hills again.

From the top of Ben Macdhui

I shall watch the gathering storm And see the crisp snow lying

At the back of Cairngorm.

I shall feel the mist from Bhrotain And pass by Lairig Ghru

To look on dark Loch Einich

From the heights of Sgoran Dubh. From the Broken Barns of Bynack I shall see the sunrise gleam

On the forehead of Ben Rinnes

And Strathspey awake from dream. And again in the dusk of evening I shall find once more alone

The dark water of the Green Loch And the pass beyond Ryvoan.

For tonight I leave from Euston

And leave the world behind;

Who has the hills for a lover

Will find them wondrous kind