Despite the publication of fifteen individual volumes of poetry and two substantial selections over the past forty years, despite the fact that most of his mature work has been well received by critics and has won awards, and despite the inclusion of his work in such an influential anthology as A. Alvarez's The New Poetry (1962), Norman MacCaig's name is not nearly so well known among readers of poetry as it should be.

Perhaps one should speak of his lack of reputation among English readers of poetry, for part of the problem, undoubtedly, is geographical: MacCaig has rarely strayed far or for long from his native Scotland, and one recalls that even Hugh MacDiarmid was an old man before he became generally known south of a border that, as MacCaig has said, is a potent psychological barrier. Moreover, although he is a man of wit and erudition, MacCaig lacks...