Context and Overview (Scottish Highers English): Revision Notes
Context and Overview
What were the Clearances?
The Clearances were a series of forced evictions that took place during the 18th and 19th centuries across Scotland. These events affected multiple regions, including the Scottish Highlands, the Western Isles, Orkney, and Shetland. During this period, families who had lived on the land for many generations were removed from their homes. Landlords carried out these evictions because sheep farming offered greater financial returns than allowing people to remain on the land.
The title 'Da Clearance' uses the singular form rather than plural. This deliberate choice draws attention to one specific community and their experience. By narrowing the focus in this way, Bulter highlights the personal suffering and individual losses that occurred, rather than presenting the Clearances as an abstract historical event.
The setting and structure of the poem
The poem takes place in a crofting township in Shetland. A croft is a small agricultural unit, typically worked by a family. Bulter writes from a first-person perspective, allowing readers to experience events through the eyes of someone within the community. The narrator uses the present tense throughout, which creates a sense of immediacy and makes the historical events feel vivid and current.
The poem moves through time, showing the community at different stages. This structure allows readers to understand what was lost and how the Clearances changed everything.
Stanza 1: Life before the Clearances
The opening stanza presents daily life in the township before the evictions began. Bulter shows both the work people did and their domestic routines. This period is characterised by harmony – people lived in balance with their environment and with each other. The portrayal of this harmonious existence is important because it establishes what the community had before it was taken away.
Stanza 2: Growing tension
The second stanza shifts to the interior of a home within the township. Here, tension builds as the community becomes aware of what is coming. People know that the evictions are approaching, and this knowledge creates anxiety and fear. The focus on one household makes the threat feel personal and intimate.
Stanza 3: The eviction
The third stanza describes the actual moment of eviction. Men acting on behalf of the landlord arrive to remove people from their homes. This is the central, traumatic event of the poem. The use of present tense here makes the violence and disruption feel immediate to the reader.
Stanza 4: Aftermath
The final stanza reflects on what happened after the Clearances. It considers the lasting impact on both the physical township and the people who formed the community. This section addresses loss, memory, and the enduring consequences of displacement.
Themes and significance
Bulter's poem explores how land represents more than physical property. For the people in the township, their land provided sustenance – it was where they grew food and raised animals. Beyond this practical function, the land connected them to their heritage. It was where their ancestors had lived, and it formed part of their cultural identity. Being removed from this land meant losing all these connections at once.
By writing 'Da Clearance' in Shetlandic – the language spoken in Shetland – Bulter makes an important statement. She connects the local experience of Shetlanders with the wider Scottish history of land use, ownership, and displacement. The choice to use Shetlandic rather than standard English emphasises that these were real communities with their own languages and cultures, not anonymous historical victims.
Rhoda Bulter's background
Rhoda Bulter was born Rhoda Johnson in 1929 and lived until 1994. She came from Lerwick, the main port town in Shetland, and worked as a writer, performer, and broadcaster. In 1939, when the Second World War began, Bulter moved to Lunnasting, a parish in northern Shetland, where she lived with her aunt. She spent two formative years there, experiencing a rural and traditional way of life. This period left a lasting impression on Bulter and became a major source of inspiration for her poetry.
Bulter's first published poem, 'Fladdabister', appeared in The New Shetlander magazine in 1965. It was written in Shetlandic. As her career developed, she made the decision to write and perform exclusively in her native tongue. This choice represented her commitment to championing the Shetlandic language – the language she had grown up speaking. She contributed regularly to Shetland Life and The New Shetlander, and was a frequent presence on Radio Shetland, which broadcast in both Shetlandic and English.
Today, Bulter is regarded as one of Shetland's most important and beloved poets. Her work is celebrated for its vivid descriptions, its humour, and its deep connection to Shetland's landscapes, traditions, and way of life. Her influence extends beyond literature into the cultural identity of Shetland itself. The Rhoda Bulter Award, which alternates between visual arts and poetry, honours her legacy and continues to inspire work connected to her life and writing.
Publication information
'Da Clearance' appears in Hairst is Coosed: The Rhoda Bulter Collection, which was published by The Shetland Times in 2014. This collection was published after Bulter's death and brings together all four volumes of her poetry: Shaela (1976), A Nev foo o Coarn (1977), Link-stanes (1980), and Snyivveries (1986). The collection also includes previously unpublished poems, as well as line drawings by Bulter, music scores, and photographs.
During her lifetime, Bulter recorded three CDs of her poems: Bide a start wi me, Shetlandic, and Caald Clods an Tinder. These recordings preserve her voice and her performance of the Shetlandic language.
Key Points to Remember:
- The Clearances were forced evictions in 18th-19th century Scotland that removed families from land they had occupied for generations, making way for sheep farming.
- The poem's structure moves through four stages: harmony before the Clearances, rising tension, the eviction itself, and the lasting aftermath.
- Bulter writes in Shetlandic from a first-person, present-tense perspective, making the historical events feel immediate and personal.
- The poem explores how land represents sustenance, heritage, and identity – not merely property.
- Rhoda Bulter was a champion of the Shetlandic language whose childhood experiences in rural Shetland deeply influenced her poetry.