SOURCE: MacDonald, Robert H. Introduction to William Drummond of Hawthornden: Poems and Prose, edited by Robert H. MacDonald, pp. ix-xxvi. Edinburgh: Scottish Academic Press, 1976.

In the following excerpt, MacDonald surveys Drummond's life and literary career, arguing that although he is often considered an “unfashionable” poet, Drummond is still worth studying.

Drummond of Hawthornden, it could be argued, was the best poet Scotland produced between Douglas and Ramsay. Certainly he ranks higher than any other Scot of the seventeenth century, and looking south, he holds his own as one of the superior craftsmen of his age. Yet his work has been much neglected, and since the root of this neglect lies in the obscuring prejudices of fashion, it is not too late now to seek a remedy.

Drummond suffered from the times he lived in, from the want of a cultural centre in Scotland and the civil wars that...