Front Cover -- About the Author -- Copyright -- Dedication -- Acknowledgements -- Table of Contents -- Introduction -- Further Reading -- from The Long River (1955) -- The Dedicated Spirits -- 'Some days were running legs' -- Poem of Lewis -- Anchored Yachts on a Stormy Day -- from The White Noon (1959) -- False Summer Leans -- In Luss Churchyard -- Highland Sunday -- End of the Season on a Stormy Day - Oban -- School Teacher -- The Widow -- Statement by a Responsible Spinster -- Night Walk 1 -- Night Walk 2 -- Seagulls -- Room for Living -- Beautiful Shadow -- For the Unknown Seamen of the 1939-45 War Buried in Iona Churchyard -- The Window -- from Thistles and Roses (1961) -- Old Woman ('And she, being old fed from a mashed plate') -- Luss Village -- A Note on Puritans -- Schoolgirl on Speech-day in the Open Air -- Dying is not Setting Out -- John Knox -- About that Mile -- Sunday Morning Walk -- Love Songs of a Puritan -- Kierkegaard -- By Ferry to the Island -- Culloden and After -- A Young Highland Girl Studying Poetry -- For Angus MacLeod -- Studies in Power -- Home -- For My Mother -- Deer on the High Hills (1962) -- from The Law and the Grace (1965) -- Old Woman ('Your thorned back') -- The Witches -- Two Girls Singing -- Old Highland Lady Reading Newspaper -- Lenin -- The Argument -- Johnson in the Highlands -- Face of an Old Highland Woman -- The Clearances -- 'It is the old' -- At the Firth of Lorne -- The Law and the Grace -- Hume -- Rythm -- Preparation for a Death -- Encounter in a School Corridor -- To Forget the Dead -- The Chess Player -- Envoi (Remember me when you come into your kingdom) -- from Three Regional Voices (1968) -- The Departing Island -- Old Woman ('Overwhelmed with kindnesses…') -- Money-man Only -- Returning Exile (Home he came after Canada) -- She Teaches Lear -- from From Bourgeois Land (1969).

Entering Your House -- Hamlet -- Epitaph -- 'It was the heavy jokes' -- In Youth -- The Wind Roars -- Young Girl Singing Psalm -- At the Sale -- 'More than twenty years ago' -- 'I take it from you' -- 'To hell with this poetry reading' -- 'What's your Success?' -- 'Children, follow the dwarfs' -- Ben Dorain (1969). Translated from the Gaelic of Duncan Ban Macintyre -- from Lines Review (1969) -- Old Woman with Flowers -- Glasgow -- The House We Lived In -- Return to the Council House -- School Sports, at the Turnstiles -- Mr M. -- In the Classics Room -- Hear us, O Lord -- Homage to George Orwell -- from Transparencies: A Sequence -- Shall Gaelic Die? -- from Poems to Eimhir (1971). Translated from the Gaelic of Sorley MacLean -- from Hamlet in Autumn (1972) -- On a Summer's Day -- Dead for a Rat -- Dear Hamlet -- How often I feel like you -- Russian Poem -- Party -- Dipping Your Spoon -- Shane -- Chaplin -- End of Schooldays -- For Keats -- For John Maclean, Headmaster, and Classical and Gaelic Scholar -- Gaelic Songs -- Not to Islands -- For Ann in America in the Autumn -- In the Chinese Restaurant -- The Small Snags -- Children in Winter -- Lear and Carroll -- Give Me Your Hand -- Christmas, 1971 -- The Letter -- In the Time of the Useless Pity -- Finis not Tragedy -- Everything Is Silent -- from Love Poems and Elegies (1972) -- 'You lived in Glasgow' -- 'You told me once' -- 'My sailor father' -- 'That island formed you' -- The Space-ship -- On Looking at the Dead -- 'Of the uncomplicated dairy girl' -- 'Tinily a star goes down' -- Contrasts -- Moonlight over the island -- 'The chair in which you've sat' -- Argument -- 'The world's a minefield' -- The place without music -- At the Scott Exhibition, Edinburgh Festival -- from Penguin Modern Poets 21 (1972) -- By the Sea -- Jean Brodie's Children -- If You Are About to Die Now.

The White Air of March -- from Orpheus and Other Poems (1974) -- The Island ('And as for that island…') -- In the Dark -- Orpheus -- Breughel -- Poem for Auden -- The Glass of Water -- from Poems for Donalda (1974) -- Helplessly -- The Present -- The Shadows -- Tonight -- from The Permanent Island (1975). Translated from the author's own Gaelic -- Young Girl -- You are at the bottom of my mind -- Going Home -- To an Old Woman -- The Old Woman ('Tonight she is sitting by a window…') -- At the Cemetery -- At the Stones of Callanish -- What Is Wrong? -- Eight Songs for a New Ceilidh -- Oban -- Sighting the Mountains of Harris -- The Sea and the Rocks -- Song of Remembrance -- 1941-1942 -- The Minister -- The Rain -- Song -- Love Song -- The Highlands -- Luss -- Bareness -- On the Street -- Innocence -- The Island ('There is an island…') -- When We Were Young -- Poem ('Liberal, Labour or Conservative…') -- My Poetry -- One Girl -- Freud -- The White Swan -- The Little Old Lady -- Conversation -- The Melodeon of the Spirit -- Predestination ('If I had done that…') -- For Derick Thomson -- The Prodigal Son ('Under the stars of grief…') -- The Poppy -- Saturday -- Deirdre -- The Heroes -- Autumn Song -- The Fool -- To My Mother -- The Old Woman ('The postman will come tonight…') -- On a Beautiful Day -- The Stone -- Raven -- On a Misty Evening -- The TV -- from The Notebooks of Robinson Crusoe and Other Poems (1975) -- My Uncle -- The Prodigal Son ('All day,' he said, 'I've been trying to write a play') -- Ceilidh -- The Sound of Music -- Incident ('She watched him…') -- Chinese Poem -- The Notebooks of Robinson Crusoe -- from In the Middle (1977) -- In Yellow -- When Day is Done -- The Torches -- My Child -- The Chair -- The Scream -- Women -- Tears Are Salt -- The Old School Books -- Clouds -- None Is the Same as Another.

from The Emigrants (1983). Translated from the author's own Gaelic -- Lewis -- The Herring Girls -- Climbing and Climbing -- We Will Walk -- Berries -- When I am Reading -- On an Autumn Day -- Vancouver -- You -- Let us Raise -- from The Exiles (1984) -- Returning Exile (You who come home do not tell me) -- There is no Sorrow -- Next Time -- The Exiles. Translated from the author's own Gaelic -- Always -- In the Spring -- Youth -- Australia -- Prince Charles -- No Return -- Reading Shakespeare -- Speech for Prospero -- 'You'll take a bath' -- Autumn ('Autumn again. A wide-eyed absence in') -- Owl and Mouse -- 'Iolaire' -- For Poets Writing in English over in Ireland -- Lost -- Hallowe'en ('Someone was playing the piano…') -- Poem ('It is always evening in a German poem') -- The Survivors -- The 'Ordinary' People -- At the Funeral of Robert Garioch -- Who Daily -- Envoi (There are) -- A Life (1986) -- Lewis 1928-1945 -- Aberdeen University 1945-1949 -- National Service 1950-1952 -- Clydebank and Dumbarton 1952-1955 -- Oban 1955-1982 -- Taynuilt 1982- -- The Village and Other Poems (1989) -- The Village -- Nothing Will Happen -- Not in Heaven -- Helensburgh -- The Drowned -- Villagers -- Photograph of Emigrants -- Incubator -- The Story -- At the Party -- After the Edinburgh Festival -- Stupidly -- In this Pitiless Age -- Slowly -- Meeting -- Marx -- The Women -- In Belfast -- Girl and Child -- Speeding-up -- TV -- Christmas -- The Country of Pain -- Poor Artist -- Against Apartheid 1 -- Against Apartheid 2 -- Snow -- Cat and Mouse -- The Leaves and Us -- In the Garden -- Rose -- Autumn Stubble -- The Cat -- Early Spring -- The Black Chest -- The Traveller -- Farewell my Brother -- Listen -- from The Birlinn (uncollected, 1977). Translated from the Gaelic of Alexander Macdonald (eighteenth century) -- The Storm -- Roman Poems (uncollected, 1979).

The Invasion -- Marcus Aurelius Speaks -- The Atoms -- from Ends and Beginnings (1994) -- Poetry -- The Bible -- Old Lady ('All your sap is thickened towards survival') -- As Time Draws Near -- Funeral -- An Old Man Praying -- Dying Man -- In Hospital -- Dogmas -- Come, Fool -- From the Mad Ward -- London -- Aberdeen -- Putting out the Ashes -- Hallowe'en ('This small child has an old man's face') -- The Fence -- Welcome -- The Gaelic Proverb -- The Poet ('Chained at his desk') -- Milton -- The Scholar -- Dream -- The Young Girls -- Books -- Others -- Insomnia -- from The Human Face (1996) -- 'That ethnic differences should' -- from The Leaf and the Marble (1998) -- from A Country for Old Men (2000) -- The Old Man -- Those Who Talk to the Wind -- Autumn ('Autumn reminds one') -- Names -- Ashes -- Old Lady ('I salute this gallant old lady') -- On a Photograph by Dan Morrison -- Shorts -- Old Folks' Party -- In Winter -- Neighbour -- MacDiarmid -- All Day -- The Old Men -- Interviewer -- Time to Stop -- The Old Woman ('It took me a while to push her down') -- Parkhead -- For A.J. Macleod -- For Edwin Morgan -- Old Woman ('I see the old woman…') -- Leaves -- Not a Day for Dante -- Page after Page -- He Spoke -- from My Canadian Uncle (2000) -- Uncollected Poems -- Crofter's Wife -- From the Train -- Art -- The Lesson -- Shylock -- Lear -- The Forest of Arden -- On an Icy Day -- On Seeing a Russian Version of Richard III at the Edinburgh Festival -- Van Gogh and the Visitors -- In Paisley Library -- Return to Aberdeen -- The Old Lady -- Predestination ('The tram ran on rails') -- The Red Horse -- I Remember I Remember -- My Brother -- Old Characters -- Martha -- The Unemployed -- Autumn ('Let me read again the autumn newspapers') -- Reminder -- For Peter, Leaving for the RAF -- The Tape Runs -- Sometimes When I Am Alone -- On National Service.

Hallowe'en ('Hunting for apples').