Abstract
Looking at Hugh MacDiarmid’s Sangschaw (1925), Penny Wheep (1926), and A Drunk Man Looks at the Thistle (1926), this article considers MacDiarmid’s use of science, particularly astronomy, in the 1920s. It traces known and possible sources for his scientific knowledge in books and periodicals, especially The New Age. It examines the image of light travelling through space, found in popular astronomy works by Felix Eberty and Camille Flammarion. It also compares his conception of the earth as a moving object in space with that found in poems by Thomas Hardy.
Recommended Citation
Whitworth, Michael H.
(2024)
"MacDiarmid the Spaceman: Extraterrestrial Space in Hugh MacDiarmid’s Poetry from Sangschaw to A Drunk Man Looks at the Thistle,"
Studies in Scottish Literature:
Vol. 49:
Iss.
1, 89–104.
DOI: 10.51221/sc.ssl.2024.49.1.6
Available at:
https://scholarcommons.sc.edu/ssl/vol49/iss1/6