Elegies for the Dead in Cyrenaica

Last year Polygon revived interest in the work of the Scottish poet and folklorist Hamish Henderson by publishing a fantastic biography by Timothy Neat. They’ve now followed that up by reprinting this sequence of poems, which Henderson intended to be read as one long poem. Elegies for the Dead in Cyrenaica was written mainly during the time that Henderson was serving in North Africa during the Second World War. It’s partly a modernist work, and was praised by T.S. Eliot as such, but it also draws on the folk tradition that Henderson would later concentrate on working within. This is complex poetry, and to be approached carefully, but please do; it’s full of curious, fascinating imagery, like when “lean seedlings of lament spring like swordsmen around us”, for example. It looks at the war from both sides, and it looks forward to the world after too. Each elegy has its own distinct voice, and there are a selection of introductions too, to lead you through the collection without too much confusion. A very fine reprint. [Keir Hind]