Girl of the red-gold hair

Summary of the poem:

• "Girl of the Red-Gold Hair" is the opening poem in Sorley MacLean's collection "Poems to Eimhir," published in 1943.
• The poem reflects MacLean's struggles and sorrows in the 1930s and is part of a significant milestone in Gaelic literature.
• The collection encompasses themes like landscape, love, and the threat of fascism in Europe, addressing multiple women rather than just one.

The inspiration for the poem:

• The poem documents MacLean's nighttime journey near the Isle of Raasay, conveying a sense of futility and despair he was experiencing.

The form of the poem:

• Comprises five quatrains.
• Lacks a regular rhyming scheme, reflecting the unpredictable nature of natural elements.
• Written in a first-person narrative with direct address to the subject, creating immediacy.

Summary of each stanza:

First Stanza:

• In the initial stanza, the speaker expresses his sorrow and distance from the girl with red-gold hair. He begins far from her, signifying emotional separation.

Second Stanza:

• In this stanza, the girl is described as the speaker's "love." He acknowledges that his pursuit of her is unreciprocated, leading to a sense of grief and despair.

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Poetry

Third Stanza:

• The landscape of Dun Caan is depicted as grey and misty, and the moorgrass and bog cotton are described as fretful and coarse. These descriptions symbolize the bleak and eerie mood that surrounds the speaker.

Fourth Stanza:

• The wind is characterized as skirling, making a shrill, wailing sound. This reflects the speaker's emotional pain. The speaker remains indifferent to a battle on a bare sea, highlighting his emotional detachment.

Fifth Stanza:

• The closing stanza is almost identical to the first, reinforcing the cyclical nature of the speaker's emotions. It concludes with the speaker being even further from the girl, emphasizing the deepening sense of despair and emotional distance.

In "The Girl of the Red-Gold Hair," each stanza contributes to the overall mood of desolation and portrays the speaker's unrequited love, his bleak surroundings, and the recurring cycle of his emotions. The poem encapsulates the enduring theme of love and its profound impact on the speaker.

Themes:

Love:

• The girl of the red hair is addressed as love from the outset.
• MacLean's unrequited love is the source of his grief and sorrow.
• His persistence in pursuing the girl despite unreciprocated affection highlights the desolation love can bring.

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Poetry

Place:

• The poem references the Sound of Raasay and Dun Caan.
• These places serve as a backdrop to the speaker's pessimism, never glamorized, reflecting his emotional state.
• The negative portrayal of place mirrors the speaker's desolation, linking him to the bleak landscape.

Images:

Grey Mist and Moorgrass:

• "Grey the mist creeping over Dun Caan, fretful the coarse moorgrass and bog cotton."
• The grey mist and barren moorgrass create a bleak and eerie mood, symbolizing the speaker's pessimism.

Wind Skirling:

• "the wind skirts round the top of the mast."
• The wind's shrill, wailing sound mirrors the speaker's pain and torment, while his indifference to a battle on the sea reflects his emotional stagnation.

Style Techniques:

Cyclical Structure:

• The opening and closing stanzas are nearly identical, suggesting a cyclical nature in the speaker's emotions.
• The poem portrays a sense of returning to the same emotional state, with the speaker becoming further detached from the girl.

Contrasts:

• The poem contrasts the potential of natural elements with the speaker's helplessness.
• While the wind tugs energetically at the sail, the speaker remains indifferent and disconnected, symbolizing his emotional stagnation.

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Poetry

Language Techniques:

Singular Pronouns:

• The exclusive use of singular pronouns emphasizes the speaker's loneliness and separation from the girl.
• This reinforces the theme of unrequited love and solitude.

Descriptive Language:

• The speaker's use of words like "aching," "gloom," "fretful," and "indifferent" conveys a sense of despair and suffering.
• The language solidifies the mood of the poem as entirely pessimistic.

In "Girl of the Red-Gold Hair," Sorley MacLean uses vivid imagery, cyclical structure, and contrasts to express the desolation of unrequited love and the unchanging, bleak landscape as symbols of his emotional state. The poem's themes of love, place, and enduring power of love connect it to MacLean's broader body of work.

Personal Reflection

1. How does the vivid imagery in the poem intensify your emotional reaction to the speaker's unrequited love and desolation?

2. What does the cyclical structure reveal about the speaker's relentless pursuit of love?

3. How does the contrast between nature and the speaker's emotions prompt you to consider the relationship between human feelings and the world around us?