SOURCE: McClure, J. Derrick. “‘O Phoenix Escossois’: James VI as Poet.” In A Day Estivall: Essays on the Music, Poetry and History of Scotland and England & Poems Previously Unpublished: In Honour of Helena Mennie Shire, edited by Alisoun Gardner-Medwin and Janet Hadley Williams, pp. 96-111. Aberdeen, Scotland: Aberdeen University Press, 1990.

In the following essay, McClure surveys James's verse and assesses his contribution to Scottish poetry.

In the great pageant of European royalty, King James the Sixth of Scots occupies a place all of his own. Not even the features of Henry VIII or Louis XIV can be more familiar than the oft-portrayed, very Scottish face of James, with its ungracious yet disconcertingly penetrating glower. By the mere fact of dying peacefully in his bed he attained to a distinction rare enough among Scottish kings; and by doing so after a long and on the whole successful reign lasting...