Edwin Muir

Edwin Muir "Robert the Bruce (To Douglas in Dying)" Poem animation

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• published: 02 May 2012
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Heres a virtual movie of the celebrated Scottish poet from the Island of Orkney reading his poem tribute to Scots hero of old "Robert the Bruce (To Douglas in Dying)" The poem was first published around 1918,and the is reading is by the celebrated poet G.S Fraser. Robert I (11 July 1274 -- 7 June 1329), popularly known as Robert the Bruce (Medieval Gaelic: Roibert a Briuis; modern Scottish Gaelic: Raibeart Bruis; Norman French: Robert de Brus or Robert de Bruys), was King of Scots from 25 March 1306, until his death in 1329. His paternal ancestors were of Scoto-Norman heritage (originating in Brix, Manche, Normandy), and his maternal of Franco-Gaelic.[3] He became one of Scotland's greatest kings, as well as one of the most famous warriors of his generation, eventually leading Scotland during the Wars of Scottish Independence against the Kingdom of England. He claimed the Scottish throne as a fourth great-grandson of David I of Scotland, and fought successfully during his reign to regain Scotland's place as an independent nation. Today in Scotland, Bruce is remembered as a national hero. His body is buried in Dunfermline Abbey, while it is believed his heart was interred in Melrose Abbey. Bruce's lieutenant and friend Sir James Douglas agreed to take the late King's embalmed heart on crusade to the Holy Land, but he only reached Moorish Granada. According to tradition, Douglas was carrying the heart in a silver casket when he died at the head of the Scottish contingent at the Battle of Teba. Edwin Muir (15 May 1887 -- 3 January 1959) was an Orcadian[1][2] poet, novelist and translator born on a farm in Deerness on the Orkney Islands. He is remembered for his deeply felt and vivid poetry in plain language with few stylistic preoccupations. Muir was born in Deerness, where his mother was also born, at Hacco, remembered in his autobiography as "Haco". In 1901, when he was 14, his father lost his farm, and the family moved to Glasgow. In quick succession his father, two brothers, and his mother died within the space of a few years. His life as a young man was a depressing experience, and involved a raft of unpleasant jobs in factories and offices, including working in a factory that turned bones into charcoal.[3] "He suffered psychologically in a most destructive way, although perhaps the poet of later years benefited from these experiences as much as from his Orkney 'Eden'." [4] In 1919, Muir married Willa Anderson,[5] and the two moved to London. About this, Muir wrote simply 'My marriage was the most fortunate event in my life'.[6] They would later collaborate on highly acclaimed English translations of such writers as Franz Kafka, Gerhart Hauptmann, Sholem Asch, Heinrich Mann, and Hermann Broch. Between 1921 and 1923, Muir lived in Prague, Dresden, Italy, Salzburg and Vienna; he returned to the UK in 1924. Between 1925 and 1956, Muir published seven volumes of poetry which were collected after his death and published in 1991 as The Complete Poems of Edwin Muir. From 1927 to 1932 he published three novels, and in 1935 he came to St Andrews, where he produced his controversial Scott and Scotland (1936). From 1946 to 1949 he was Director of the British Council in Prague and Rome. 1950 saw his appointment as Warden of Newbattle Abbey College (a college for working class men) in Midlothian, where he met fellow Orcadian poet, George Mackay Brown. In 1955 he was made Norton Professor of English at Harvard University. He returned to Britain in 1956 but died in 1959 at Swaffham Prior, Cambridge, and was buried there. A memorial bench was erected in 1962 to Muir in the idyllic village of Swanston, Edinburgh, where he spent time during the 1950s Kind Regards Jim Clark All rights are reserved on this video recording copyright Jim Clark 2012 Robert the Bruce (To Douglas in Dying)............. 'MY life is done, yet all remains, The breath has gone, the image not, The furious shapes once forged in heat Live on though now no longer hot. 'Steadily the shining swords In order rise, in order fall, In order on the beaten field The faithful trumpets call. 'The women weeping for the dead Are not sad now but dutiful, The dead men stiffening in their place Proclaim the ancient rule. 'Great Wallace's body hewn in four, So altered, stays as it must be. 0 Douglas do not leave me now, For past your head I see 'My dagger sheathed in Comyn's heart And nothing there to praise or blame, Nothing but order which must be Itself and still the same. 'But that Christ hung upon the Cross, Comyn would rot until time's end And bury my sin in boundless dust, For there is no amend. 'In order; yet in order run All things by unreturning ways, If Christ live not, nothing is there For sorrow or for praise.' So the king spoke to Douglas once A little while before his death, Having outfaced three English kings And kept a people's faith.

Edwin Muir "Robert the Bruce (To Douglas in Dying)" Poem animation

• Report rights infringement
• published: 02 May 2012
• views: 1164

Heres a virtual movie of the celebrated Scottish poet from the Island of Orkney reading his poem tribute to Scots hero of old "Robert the Bruce (To Douglas in Dying)" The poem was first published around 1918,and the is reading is by the celebrated poet G.S Fraser. Robert I (11 July 1274 -- 7 June 1329), popularly known as Robert the Bruce (Medieval Gaelic: Roibert a Briuis; modern Scottish Gaelic: Raibeart Bruis; Norman French: Robert de Brus or Robert de Bruys), was King of Scots from 25 March 1306, until his death in 1329. His paternal ancestors were of Scoto-Norman heritage (originating in Brix, Manche, Normandy), and his maternal of Franco-Gaelic.[3] He became one of Scotland's greatest kings, as well as one of the most famous warriors of his generation, eventually leading Scotland during the Wars of Scottish Independence against the Kingdom of England. He claimed the Scottish throne as a fourth great-grandson of David I of Scotland, and fought successfully during his reign to regain Scotland's place as an independent nation. Today in Scotland, Bruce is remembered as a national hero. His body is buried in Dunfermline Abbey, while it is believed his heart was interred in Melrose Abbey. Bruce's lieutenant and friend Sir James Douglas agreed to take the late King's embalmed heart on crusade to the Holy Land, but he only reached Moorish Granada. According to tradition, Douglas was carrying the heart in a silver casket when he died at the head of the Scottish contingent at the Battle of Teba. Edwin Muir (15 May 1887 -- 3 January 1959) was an Orcadian[1][2] poet, novelist and translator born on a farm in Deerness on the Orkney Islands. He is remembered for his deeply felt and vivid poetry in plain language with few stylistic preoccupations. Muir was born in Deerness, where his mother was also born, at Hacco, remembered in his autobiography as "Haco". In 1901, when he was 14, his father lost his farm, and the family moved to Glasgow. In quick succession his father, two brothers, and his mother died within the space of a few years. His life as a young man was a depressing experience, and involved a raft of unpleasant jobs in factories and offices, including working in a factory that turned bones into charcoal.[3] "He suffered psychologically in a most destructive way, although perhaps the poet of later years benefited from these experiences as much as from his Orkney 'Eden'." [4] In 1919, Muir married Willa Anderson,[5] and the two moved to London. About this, Muir wrote simply 'My marriage was the most fortunate event in my life'.[6] They would later collaborate on highly acclaimed English translations of such writers as Franz Kafka, Gerhart Hauptmann, Sholem Asch, Heinrich Mann, and Hermann Broch. Between 1921 and 1923, Muir lived in Prague, Dresden, Italy, Salzburg and Vienna; he returned to the UK in 1924. Between 1925 and 1956, Muir published seven volumes of poetry which were collected after his death and published in 1991 as The Complete Poems of Edwin Muir. From 1927 to 1932 he published three novels, and in 1935 he came to St Andrews, where he produced his controversial Scott and Scotland (1936). From 1946 to 1949 he was Director of the British Council in Prague and Rome. 1950 saw his appointment as Warden of Newbattle Abbey College (a college for working class men) in Midlothian, where he met fellow Orcadian poet, George Mackay Brown. In 1955 he was made Norton Professor of English at Harvard University. He returned to Britain in 1956 but died in 1959 at Swaffham Prior, Cambridge, and was buried there. A memorial bench was erected in 1962 to Muir in the idyllic village of Swanston, Edinburgh, where he spent time during the 1950s Kind Regards Jim Clark All rights are reserved on this video recording copyright Jim Clark 2012 Robert the Bruce (To Douglas in Dying)............. 'MY life is done, yet all remains, The breath has gone, the image not, The furious shapes once forged in heat Live on though now no longer hot. 'Steadily the shining swords In order rise, in order fall, In order on the beaten field The faithful trumpets call. 'The women weeping for the dead Are not sad now but dutiful, The dead men stiffening in their place Proclaim the ancient rule. 'Great Wallace's body hewn in four, So altered, stays as it must be. 0 Douglas do not leave me now, For past your head I see 'My dagger sheathed in Comyn's heart And nothing there to praise or blame, Nothing but order which must be Itself and still the same. 'But that Christ hung upon the Cross, Comyn would rot until time's end And bury my sin in boundless dust, For there is no amend. 'In order; yet in order run All things by unreturning ways, If Christ live not, nothing is there For sorrow or for praise.' So the king spoke to Douglas once A little while before his death, Having outfaced three English kings And kept a people's faith.