Raasay
The poet Sorley MacLean was born in Osgaig, a small crofting community on the west coast of the island; perhaps his most famous poem is about "Hallaig", an abandoned community on the east coast. MacLean's writings often combine an ancient traditional awareness, with a modernist political outlook, in which Raasay, and the areas adjacent to it are frequently referenced. But while MacLean's work dwells on the brutality of war, of the Highland Clearances and modern exploitation, he also writes about nature. Thus, although the Clearances leave an empty landscape populated only by the ghosts of those evicted or forced to emigrate, "Time, the deer, is in the Wood of Hallaig".
Sorley MacLean
Although his poetry had a profound impact on the Gaelic-speaking world, it was not until the 1970s and 1980s that MacLean's work became accessible in English translation. His poetry was not very accessible to Gaelic speakers either, since "Dàin do Eimhir" was not reprinted. To English-speakers, MacLean remained virtually unknown until 1970, when issue 34 of "Lines Review" was dedicated to his work and some of his poems were reproduced in the anthology "Four Points of the Saltire." In the preface to the collection, Tom Scott forcefully argued for the merit of MacLean's poetry. Iain Crichton Smith published an English translation of "Dàin do Eimhir" in 1971. MacLean was part of the delegation that represented Scotland at the first Cambridge Poetry Festival in 1975, establishing his reputation in England. He was one of five Gaelic poets to be anthologized in the influential 1976 collection "Nua-Bhàrdachd Ghàidhlig / Modern Scottish Gaelic Poems" with verse translations by the authors. MacLean's verse translations were also included in later publications.