Traditional Gaelic poetry and song of Skye: known authors introduction

Gaelic Literature of the Isle of Skye: an annotated bibliography

Traditional poetry and song of known authorship: introduction

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Included are the works of those poets who have belonged to Skye and its adjacent islands, either through birth or long residence. The exact criteria may vary, depending upon circumstances. For instance, William Ross (1762-1790) was born and spent his childhood years in Skye, but his active poetic life was spent on the mainland Gaidhealtachd and, with the exception of one poem, ‘Còmhradh eadar am Bàrd agus Blàth-bheinn’ I do not feel that he can be called a Skye poet, although I realise that not everyone will agree with this.

Where a recognised collected edition of a poet’s work exists, separate publication of an individual item included in such an edition is not cited here unless there are significant textual variations between the two versions and the variant version is not noted in the collected edition.

Where the published title of a poem is descriptive, rather than derived from the text, the first line is quoted in the annotation.

Where recorded versions of a poet’s work have been issued in conjunction with the printed text these are noted and wherever possible, printed versions of tunes for poems or songs published separately from the texts cited are noted.