The Scotsman

The Field by the Lirk o’ the Hill

- Byvioletja­cob

Although the centenary of the armistice took place last week, commemorat­ion of the First World War continues: on 23 November, a ceremony at Makar’s Court in Edinburgh will unveil a memorial to Scotland’s war poets. They might not be as well-known as Owen and Sassoon, but their words are often just as powerful. Violet Jacob’s “The Field by the Lirk o’ the Hill,” which can be found in Armistice:

A Laureate’s Choice of Poems of War and Peace (Faber, £12.99), a new anthology edited by Carol Ann Duffy, is animated by the author’s grief; her only son was killed during the Battle of the Somme.

Daytime an’ nicht,

Sun, wind an’ rain; The lang, cauld licht

O’ the spring months again. The yaird’s a’ weed,

An’ the fairm’s a’ still – Wha’ll sow the seed I’ the field by the lirk o’ the hill?

Prood maun ye lie,

Prood did ye gang; Auld, auld am I,

But O! life’s lang! Ghaists i’ the air,

Whaups cryin’ shrill, An you nae mair I’ the field by the lirk o’ the hill –

Aye, bairn, nae mair, nae mair, I’ the field by the lirk o’ the hill!

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