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AN UNDISCOVERED poem by the greatest Scottish writer of the century has been found among the papers of one of his peers.
The unpublished piece by Hugh MacDiarmid was found in the archives of Catherine Carswell, a novelist and critic, who died in 1946.
The poem, When the Gangs Came to London: On The Recent Thanksgivings for "Peace", is a fierce attack on Neville Chamberlain's appeasement of Hitler and the abandoning of Czechoslovakia. MacDiarmid describes the policy in October 1938 as worse than Judas's betrayal of Jesus and predicts that it can only lead to war.
The discovery of the poem is significant because it shows exactly how MacDiarmid felt about one of the century's most critical moments. The poet made many political pronouncements during his life but said little about the Second World War and its causes.
The verse was a reaction to Chamberlain's return from Munich when he proclaimed "peace in our time". MacDiarmid describes the compromise, which saw parts of Czechoslovakia taken by Germany, as "tragic treachery".
The poem was discovered by Dr Margery Palmer McCulloch, a lecturer in Scottish literature at Glasgow University. She described the poem as "typical of MacDiarmid's reforming, missionary poetry". She said: "It has the great sense of injustice which comes through in so much of his work."
The poem was dedicated to Carswell and to Karl Capek, a Czech playwright, who died two months after it was written. MacDiarmid believed that his friend died of grief at the destruction of his country.
Full report, page 3
AN UNPUBLISHED poem by Scotland's greatest 20th-century writer has come to light in Glasgow.
When the Gangs Came to London: On the Recent Thanksgivings for "Peace" by Hugh MacDiarmid, written in early October 1938 and reproduced here, is a cry of rage against Neville Chamberlain's policy of appeasement, with MacDiarmid furiously denouncing the then prime minister as worse than Judas Iscariot for his betrayal of the Czech people and, correctly, predicting that the supposed peace could not hold.
The poem was sent to Catherine Carswell, the leading novelist and critic who had scandalised 1930s society with her seminal and sensational biography of Robert Burns.
The poem, dedicated to her and to the Czech playwright Karl Capek, was discovered among...