#aberdeenshire

On 12th April 1941, Scottish poet, Charles Murray died at Banchory, Aberdeenshire.

Charles Murray has been described as a skilled and popular poet who wrote in the pure Scots of his native Aberdeenshire, “The Doric”.

Charles was born and raised in Alford in north-east Scotland. However he wrote much of his poetry while living in South Africa where he spent most of his working life as a successful civil engineer. His first volume, A Handful of Heather, was privately printed and he withdrew it shortly after publication to rework many of the poems within it. His second volume, Hamewith was much more successful. It was republished five times before he died and it is this volume for which he is best known. The title of the volume, which means Homewards in English, reflects his expatriate situation.

In 1969, twenty-eight years after Murray’s death, poems which had not appeared in book form during his lifetime were published as The Last Poems, with Preface and Notes by Alexander Keith.

Finally in 1979, Murray’s friend, the novelist Nan Shepherd, edited Hamewith: the complete poems of Charles Murray. These publications were supported by the Charles Murray Memorial Fund.

Hame

There’s a wee, wee glen in the Hielan’s, 

Where I fain, fain would be; 

There’s an auld kirk there on the hillside 

I weary sair to see.

 In a low lythe nook in the graveyard 

Drearily stands alane, 

Marking the last lair of a’ I lo'ed, 

A wee moss-covered stane.

There’s an auld hoose sits in a hollow 

Half happit by a tree;

 At the door the untended lilac 

Still blossoms for the bee; 

But the auld roof is sairly seggit, 

There’s nane now left to care; 

And the thatch ance sae neatly stobbit 

Has lang been scant and bare. 

Aft as I lie ‘neath a foreign sky

 In dreams I see them a’– 

The auld deer kirk, the dear auld hame, 

The glen sae far awa’. 

Dreems flee at dawn, and the tropic sun 

Nae ray o’ hop can gie; 

I wander on o'er the deser lone, 

There’s nae mair hame for me.

You can find out more about Murray on the website Gweed Wirds, which means Good Words.

https://www.thedoric.scot/charles-murray.html

You can also read more and quite a number of his poems here 

https://electricscotland.com/poetry/Murray,%20Charles%20Doric%20Poet.pdf

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