The Later Years (1981-1996)
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Sorley MacLean’s reputation continued to grow nationally and internationally in this period: his poetry was translated into other languages, and he won renown as a poet not only in Scotland and Ireland, but in Europe, North America and Australia. As Professor William Gillies commented: ‘This achievement is all the more remarkable given that he chose to write in a language that is spoken by fewer than one hundred thousand people.’
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Universities bestowed honorary degrees on Sorley in recognition of his talents and contribution to literature, and invitations came from all corners of the globe for him to read his poetry and give lectures. Many non-Gaelic speakers came to listen to his poetry just to hear his mesmeric voice – it was as if the feelings that had inspired the poem came to life once more as he recited. |
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In 1985, Sorley MacLean’s prose and critical writings were collected in Ris a’ Bhruthaich, which was edited by Professor William Gillies and published by Acair in Stornoway. Four years later, in 1989, his collected poems in Gaelic and English, O Choille gu Bearradh, were published by Carcanet. The volume was dedicated to his wife, Renee, and it included an important preface in which he set out much of his poetic credo: ‘… the “full-time” |
| professional poet is not for me and never has been. If I have time to do it, I brood over something until the rhythm comes, as a more or less tight rope to cross the abyss of silence. I go on with it, as far as I can see, unconsciously’. |
A source of great sadness was the death of his second daughter, Catriona, at an early age, and in the last years of his life he and his wife were a constant support for their son-in-law and their three grandchildren who at a young age had lost their mother.
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On 24 November 1996, Sorley MacLean passed away in Raigmore Hospital in Inverness at the age if eighty-five after a very short illness. The sense of shock was profound since ‘his voice was the authentic voice of the Highlands, of Gaeldom’, and the many obituaries were an eloquent testimony to the regard and affection in which he was held. |
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Perhaps the last word should be Iain Crichton Smith’s comment in 1973: ‘When confronted by this kind of poetry, one can only marvel that it exists… For this poetry is not simply verbalization: it is both words and music together, it is what one wants poetry to be’.
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NOTE: The information in this biography is based on the catalogue that was published in conjunction with the National Library of Scotland’s exhibition on the poetry of Sorley MacLean arranged to mark his seventieth birthday in 1981, with the preparation of which he was closely involved. Warm thanks are due to Mrs Renee MacLean for assistance with dates for the Edinburgh and Plockton periods.
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