14 Must-Read Liz Lochhead Poems

Liz Lochhead is a Scottish poet and playwright. She’s also worked as a translator and broadcaster. She was the Poet Laureate for Glasgow in the 2000s and the National Poet of Scotland from 2011 to 2016.

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Storyteller

‘Storyteller’ by Liz Lochead is a beautiful, image-rich poem in which the speaker describes the lasting impact of a storyteller’s stories.

This poem is a wonderful example of Liz Lochhead's verse. The poem demonstrates her incredible skill with the free verse form while also demonstrating her ability to depict emotions, setting, and experiences with only a few lines of detail. This poem can easily transport readers to the storyteller's room.

she sat down

at the scoured table

in the swept kitchen

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After The War

‘After the War’ is a poem that takes a nostalgic look at the hard times that the poet remembers from her childhood following World War Two.

This is a good example of Liz Lochhead's poetry. It is written in the free verse style that she usually wrote in, and it is also a very personal poem. Lochhead's poetry often dealt with her own experiences from the past, and this poem is no exception, dealing as it does with her childhood and her own memories of that time.

After the war

was the dull country I was born in.

The night of Stafford Cripps's budget

My dad inhaled the blue haze of one last Capstan

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Lanarkshire Girls

‘Lanarkshire Girls’ by Liz Lochhead is a vibrant, exciting story of teenage girls making their way into Glasgow from their rural homes.

This is quite a good example of Liz Lochhead's poetry. The poem is quite personal, as she discusses personal events from her own childhood. It is told from her perspective - Lochhead was born in Lanarkshire and is speaking of her own experiences. The style of writing is also quite typical for her poetry, using a free verse style that can be found in her other poetry.

Coming into Glasgow

in our red bus through those green fields. And

Summer annoyed us thrusting

leafy branches through the upstairs windows.

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The Red Neck

‘The Red Neck’ by Liz Lochhead is a reflective poem about a stressful wedding day, and the signs that the marriage would be in trouble from the start.

Although this poem does not seem to be written about the poet's own personal experience of marriage, it still feels very personal and could be drawn from experiences she has heard about. The writing style is very typical of Liz Lochhead, using the unreliable narrator as well as her usual free verse style. The use of Scottish colloquial language also helps to make it feel like a typical Liz Lochhead poem.

The day I got married I was like a rake.

Six month on the popcorn diet. Starving

but I wouldn't give the girls at work the satisfaction

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The Beekeeper

‘The Beekeeper’ by Liz Lochhead is a poem which explores the poet’s relationship with beekeeping and where their love for it came from.

'The Beekeeper' demonstrates Liz Lochhead's free verse style of writing. It is also a personal poem, as it discusses her love for beekeeping. The poet reflects on her history with beekeeping and how her father introduced her to it. While the poem does not discuss Scotland—one of the regular themes in her work—it nevertheless serves as a good example of her writing.

Happy as haystacks are my quiet hives

from this distance and

through the bevel of this window's glass.

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The Journeyman Paul Cezanne on Mont Sainte Victoire

‘The Journeyman Paul Cezanne on Mont Sainte Victoire’ by Liz Lochhead discusses the lasting impression of Paul Cezanne’s art.

This poem is a reasonable demonstration of Lochhead's style of writing, showing the free verse style which she is known for. However, while it does show her taste in art, the subject matter is not as personal as many of her other poems, which detail her memories of life in Scotland.

What do I paint when I paint the blue

vase, the hanged man's house,

the still life of Hortense's hands

arranged on the still life of her lap,

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1953

‘1953’ by Lochhead captures a community’s post-war revival and personal grief, weaving a narrative of enduring spirit and change.

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Aquarium 1

Through ‘Aquarium 1,’ Lochhead navigates the ethereal dance of life and change, capturing the fleeting essence of existence.

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Epithalamium

‘Epithalamium’ by Liz Lochhead celebrates love’s power to remake the world on the joyous occasion of marriage.

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For My Grandmother Knitting

‘For My Grandmother Knitting’ is a poem that utilizes repeated wording, a lack of punctuation, a distinct choice of perspective, and simplistic ideas.

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I Wouldn’t Thank You for a Valentine

I Wouldn’t Thank You for a Valentine’ by Liz Lochhead is what would appear to be a series of criticisms in regard to methods of expressing affection on Valentine’s Day.

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