Friday 27 April 2018

Mary Symon (1863 – 1938) – Scottish Poet

With thanks to https://twitter.com/GirvansFallen on Twitter for reminding me that I had not yet researched Mary Symon, who is on my List of Female Poets of the First World War.

Mary was born on 25th September 1863 in Dufftown, Moray in Banffshire, Scotland. Dufftown is in the ancient parish of Mortlach.  Her parents were John Symon, a Saddler and Merchant who was a Provost of Dufftown, and his wife, Isabella Symon, nee Duncan.  Mary had a younger sister, Elizabeth, who was born in 1866.

Mary began writing poetry at an early age. She was educated locally at Mortlach Public School, then attended the Edinburgh Institute for Young Ladies. She attended classes at Edinburgh University and graduated from St. Andrew’s University .

Mary died in Dufftown on 27 May 1938

Mary’s WW1 collection "Deveron Days, poems" was published by Wyllie, Aberdeen in 1933.  Mary's poem was also published in "A Book of Twentieth-Century Scots verse" (Gowan & Gray, Glasgow, 1925). 

For an article by Leanne Welsh about Mary’s poem "The Soldiers' Cairn", please see:  http://www.westscotlandrce.co.uk/the-soldiers-cairn.html

 
“The Soldiers' Cairn” by Mary Symon   


Gie me a hill wi' the heather on't,

An' a reid sun drappin' doon,

Or the mists o' the mornin' risin' saft

Wi' the reek owre a wee grey toon.

Gie me a howe by the lang Glen road,

For it's there 'mang the whin and fern

(D'ye mind on't, Will? Are ye hearin', Dod

That we're biggin' the Soldiers' Cairn.

Far awa’ is the Flanders land

Wi' fremmit France atween,

But mony a howe o' them baith the day

Has a hap o' the Gordon green.

It's them we kent that's lyin' there,

An' it's nae wi' stane or airn

But wi' brakin' herts, an' mem'ries sair,

That we're biggin' the Soldiers' Cairn.

Doon, laich doon the Dullan sings—

An' I ken o' an aul' sauch tree,

Where a wee loon's wahnie's hingin' yet

That's dead in Picardy;

An' ilka win' fae the Conval's broo

Bends aye the buss o' ern,

Where aince he futtled a name that noo

I'll read on the Soldiers' Cairn.

Oh! build it fine and build it fair,

Till it leaps to the moorland sky —

More, more than death is symbolled there,

Than tears or triumphs by.

There's the Dream Divine of a starward way

Our laggard feet would learn—

It's a new earth's corner-stone we'd lay

As we fashion the Soldiers' Cairn.

 

……………………………

 

Lads in your plaidies lyin' still

In lands we'll never see,

This lanely cairn on a hameland hill

Is a' that oor love can dee;

An' fine an' braw we'll mak' it a',

But oh, my Bairn, my Bairn,

It’s a cradle’s croon that’II aye blaw doon

To me fae the Soldiers' Cairn.

 Photof of the Cairan - Cabrach War Memorial, Inverharroch, Aberdeenshire, Scotland 

This war memorial cairn was constructed in 2015 to commemorate the Cabrach men who died in The First World War. Erected in 2015 by the Cabrach Community Association, the cairn is known as 'The Soldier's cairn' and remembers the seventeen men from the community who lost their lives in the conflict. 

The cairn also remembers those who lost their lives in The Second World War and later conflicts. The inscription includes an extract from the poem by Mary Symon (1863-1938) 'The Soldier's Cairn'. It reads: In memory of those from the Cabrach lost in the great War 1914 - 18 and in all subsequent conflicts. Lads in your plaidies lyin’ still, In lands we’ll never see, This lanely cairn on a hameland hill, Is a’ that oor love can dee. 


https://online.aberdeenshire.gov.uk/smrpub/master/detail.aspx?refno=NJ33SE0064




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