WILLIAM SOUTAR a taster

The Scottish poet, William Soutar(1898-1943) so renown for his poetry in the Scots dialect also wrote many excellent poems in the English lyric form and penned over a hundred in the short, concise, and ingenious epigram form that has now become known as the American cinquain.

William Soutar was a published poet in his homeland with ten titles in the years from 1931 to his death in 1943.  He was the only child of John Soutar, a master-joiner, and Margaret (Smith) and was born in Perth, a seaport on the Firth of Tay on the east coast of Scotland. He developed his literary skills at the Academy in the town, joining the Navy from school in 1916, serving in both home and foreign waters. In 1919 he attended Edinburgh University where he graduated M.A in English in 1923. It was at this time his health failed and he became bedridden for the remainder of his life.

Soutar, as a poet, was as prolific as Emily Dickinson, writing lyrics in Scots, Rhymes and Riddles for bairns (children), lyrics in English and what he termed Whigmaleeries  (whims or fanciful
notions). It was his poetry in the Scots dialect that created his fame during his life-time, especially Seeds of Time, poems in Scots for children. His English lyrics remained largely unknown, particularly his epigrams in the American cinquain format of his forbear Adelaide Crapsey, that is ,until recent times.

William's cinquains number in excess of one hundred and are an
equal in quality to Adelaide's, perhaps thereby, furthering his
existing reputation as this cinquain image examples:

WISDOM

The mind
Which can endure
Is made more wise by woe---
As colour deepens on the flower
Ar dusk.

Despite being bed-ridden William's poetry contains much humour
and experience of all that life throws at each of us. 

Also like Adelaide Crapsey  his cinquains cover a wide variety of topics that
reflect the influences upon their life and up-bringing and similar to
Adelaide he did not always keep to a rigid two:four:six:eight:two
syllable pattern within the five-line format.

THE BRIDGE

The bridge
Lifts up its brow
Like a half-shrunken skull
Within whose sockets darkly moves
The stream.

In addition to his Scots poetry and American cinquains and other
English lyrics William's reputation as a diarist and journal keeper
has been confirmed with his Diary of a Dying Man . His untimely
death from tuberculosis robbed Scotland of one of its most talented poets of the vernacular dialect.  In the wider realm William Soutar's reputation in the burgeoning world of cinquain writers is now enhancing the fame he achieved within his own land in his short but productive life.