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The poetry of Sorley MacLean
Sorley Maclean (1911-1996) is regarded as one of the greatest Scottish poets...
Sorley Maclean (1911-1996) is regarded as one of the greatest Scottish poets of the twentieth century. This unit will introduce you to his poetry and give you an insight into the cultural, historical and political contexts that inform his work. MacLean wrote in Gaelic and the importance of the language to his work is also examined.
By the end of this unit, you should be able to:
- understand the power of Maclean's poetry in its original Gaelic;
- give examples of how such poetry engages with historical and cultural change.
- Duration: 10 hours
- Published on: Friday 24th June 2011
- Level: Advanced
- Posted under: Literature
Contents
The poetry of Sorley MacLean
Introduction

Sorley Maclean (1911–1998) is now regarded as one of the greatest Scottish poets of the twentieth century. However, until the 1970s, his verse was known by very few people. In that decade, publication of English translations of his work and the impact of his public readings established him in the eyes of poetry lovers in Scotland, Ireland and England, as well as further afield, as a major poet.
This material is from our archive and is an adapted extract from Literature in the modern world (A319) which is no longer taught by The Open University. If you want to study formally with us, you may wish to explore other courses we offer in this subject area [Tip: hold Ctrl and click a link to open it in a new tab. (Hide tip)] .
Archive content
This is an extract from an Open University course which is no longer available to new students. If you found this interesting you could explore more free Literature course units or view the range of currently available OU Literature courses.
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- Creative-Commons: The Open University is proud to release this free course under a Creative Commons licence. However, any third-party materials featured within it are used with permission and are not ours to give away. These materials are not subject to the Creative Commons licence. See terms and conditions. Full details can be found in the Acknowledgements section.
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