"Blood cooled by Calvin, mist and bog/And summers in the rain." Anyone recognise this?

[singersgirl]

This quote is driving me mad. It's not fiction, but the end (I think) of a poem by a Scottish poet, but I can't find it anywhere and no-one I ask knows it (and I even asked some Scottish poets).

The collective power of Mumsnet must yield answers, surely!

[singersgirl]

Come on, all you ferociously literate and extraordinarily well-read people! Help me out here. I can't have made it up; I'd never have thought of it.

[MaryAnnSingleton]

Calvin Klein,is that ?

[singersgirl]

Oh, I was all excited that you knew it....I think it was an adolescent angsty type thing, about growing up in the Highlands or on an island.

[MaryAnnSingleton]

sorry,was trying to place it in time,so obviously contemporary ?

[SixSpotBurnet]

Thought it was a description of Gordon Brown at first!

[specialmagiclady]

No it's Calvin the protestant, isn't it. Sorry. Can't help. But it's rather good isn't it.

[singersgirl]

Yes, it's definitely about someone who had the same sort of upbringing as Broun, but went on to be a poet, not PM. And, yes, it's harsh Protestantism that cooled the poor chap's blood.

Thanks for thoughts, anyway.

[noscat]

Try Abebooks - they have a booksleuth section which managed to find me the title of a poem that I remembered a bit of from school. good luck

[singersgirl]

Thanks for that suggestion, Noscat. I will try! It's really bugging me. I'll let you know if I find out.

[FlossieTCake]

It's not Seamus Heaney, is it? Sorry, I see the word "bog" in a poem and automatically think of 'North'...

[FlossieTCake]

Oh duh - you said Scottish poet. Pay attention, Floss...

[singersgirl]

Well, I thought Scottish, but I could be wrong. Only I think if it was Heaney more people would recognise it. But will have a look at Heaney. Thanks for the suggestion.

[singersgirl]

In case anyone's interested, and for those that suggested anyone, it turns out it is Laurie Lee from his book Many Coated Man - it may even be the poem of the same name, but I've yet to get hold of a copy. Not Scottish at all, then!

[Bink]

How did you find it, in the end? - it's of an obscurity! (If you just remembered by yourself, I like that you had a "tag memory" of adolescent growing up. Which is, of course, Laurie Lee all over.)

[singersgirl]

I posted on Abebooks, as noscat suggested, and somebody answered me. It turned out that they had just looked for it in Google Books. Now I never even knew there was a Google Books, so I have been clearly looking in all the wrong places.

I was minded of it because I spent a few days recently in the wilds of Inverness-shire and every time I stepped outside onto the hillside the phrase came to me unbidden.

My Many Coated Man does ring bells, and I remember studying Laurie Lee poems. I shall look for it next time I go to the library!

[JayC031]

I have also had that same poem fragment in my head for many years. Thanks for finding its origin. I have always known when it lodged in my head and that was during my Eng Lit 'O' level but I had forgotten who wrote it.
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