Comments on: Trains and Boats and …… Poems?

By: jackdeighton

jackdeighton — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 19:20:55 +0000

Hi Gayle,
Thanks for commenting.
As far as leevin’ is concerned you’re more likely to be right than me. Eleven made sense to me, but so does living. I’m from the West too, but a bit further up, and my local speech wasn’t as broad as Fife’s, I would say.

By: Gayle Gilmour

Gayle Gilmour — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 16:49:37 +0000

Hi, love this poem, I remember my Mum reciting it at a church concert. I am Ayrshire born and bred and we still use a very similar language to that written in the poem although it’s West Coast. The raw is indeed a row. I wasn’t so sure about the translation of the word “leevin”. I would have translated it as living. Eleven is usually pronounced aleeven. Lovely to see it online. Thank you.

By: jackdeighton

jackdeighton — Tue, 26 Apr 2011 17:07:07 +0000

Thanks for looking in Vic,
Someone else mentioned the “raw” thing.
This post has been one of the most looked at/searched for I have ever done. The poem certainly seems to strike a chord.

By: Vic Grant

Vic Grant — Tue, 26 Apr 2011 11:37:37 +0000

Well, I’m a Fifer and grew up in a town about 9 miles from Kircaddy. I remember fondly as a boy reciting the poem by heart in the early 60′s and it was fun to read it again. The only thing I could remember about the poem was the reference to the smell of linoleum which was still present at that time so I googled kirkcaldy + train + linoleum to find it again. I’m also in doubt about the raw word as I haven’t lived in Scotland for over 40 years. Loved the translation and will show both of them to my Danish wife.

By: jackdeighton

jackdeighton — Tue, 19 Oct 2010 18:55:07 +0000

Yeah, thanks.
Someone else mentioned the turnip row. The raw, like the Kirkcaddy, I believe, is a Fife thing. I’m not a Fifer.

By: private schools database in America

private schools database in America — Tue, 19 Oct 2010 04:54:02 +0000

I have heard the town pronounced Kirkcaddy by older folk along the coast from Dysart to Leven. I also think that the first line of the second verse refers to a row of turnips rather than a raw turnip. Here is a poem we wrote for friends who moved back to London from Edinburgh last May (round the time of the Mayoral elections).
Enjoyed the piece.

By: Sulphur Again – A Son of the Rock -- Jack Deighton

Sulphur Again – A Son of the Rock -- Jack Deighton — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 23:00:05 +0000

[...] never fails to amaze me that a high number of visits to this blog seem to arise from my post about Mary Campbell Smith’s poem The Boy In The [...]

By: jackdeighton

jackdeighton — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 16:43:34 +0000

I only centred it to make it stand out from the prose surrounding it in my post.
I know its metre cleverly echoes the sound of a train going over joints in a railway track but the ABABCDCD rhyme scheme, for me, lessens it overall. It does make it easier to learn and remember, though.
The poem clearly strikes a chord, still; which aids your argument.
I agree modern poets could do with a bit more structure. It’s actually very difficult to get hard rhymes – or even your poetic idea – to fit in with your chosen metre; which is why modern poets often don’t try.

By: Helena Nelson

Helena Nelson — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 16:14:58 +0000

I loved your translation. It is very funny, full of character, and serves to prove, in the best imaginable way, how wonderful the original is.

Doggerel, however, it is not. It is a superb piece of formal writing. It evokes a whole period of time with flawless technique: Mary Campbell Smith knew how to turn a stanza; modern poets could learn a thing or two from her.

The layout would not have been centred. The proper layout is presented on the wall at Kirkcaldy station, etched in linoleum as is fit and proper, and also on the Scottish Poetry Library website at http://www.spl.org.uk/popular/boy-in-tra.html

By: The Year Of Terrible Pedantry - A Son of the Rock -- Jack Deighton

The Year Of Terrible Pedantry - A Son of the Rock -- Jack Deighton — Sun, 09 Aug 2009 15:23:06 +0000

[...] (where I work) soon but I think the most comments on any one post have been about the poem “The Boy In The Train.” Amazing what a piece of doggerel can [...]