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National Poetry Day postcards, Scotland 2012
teachers’ notes

Meg Bateman, Màthair (Mother)
THE POET AND HER WORK

Meg Bateman was born in Edinburgh in 1959 and grew up in the city’s New Town. She studied Gaelic at Aberdeen University and went on to achieve a doctorate in Classical Gaelic religious poetry. She began to write her own poetry in Gaelic at the same time. She taught at Aberdeen University from 1991 to 1998 before moving to Skye, where she lives with her son and teaches at the Gaelic college there, Sabhal Mòr Ostaig.

THE POEM

‘Màthair’ (Mother) is taken from Soirbheas / Fair Wind (2007) by permission of the publishers, Polygon. The book is in three sections – Air a’ Ghaidhealtachd / In the Highlands; Tìm, an Aonaranachd agus an Gaol / Time, Loneliness and Love; and Càirdean is Caraidean / Friendships – and the poem forms part of the third.

The book has an epigraph, by Robert Southwell (1561–95)

Not where I breathe, but where I love, I live;
Not where I love, but where I am, I die.

READING THE POEM – NOTES & QUESTIONS

The poem begins, “We looked at the stars for a while”.

  • Where and when does the poem take place?
  • Who are the “we” of the poem?

What do we learn about the “mother” in the poem? Think about

  • her character
  • the life she leads
  • her relationship with the speaker of the poem

What do we learn about the speaker of the poem?

What does the speaker believe will bring them closer together?

What role in the poem do “the stars” play? Think about them in terms of

  • the setting
  • the emotions of the two characters in the poem
  • what they know of the world, and of each other

How does the epigraph for the book, quoted above, relate to this particular poem? Think about the poem in terms of

  • place
  • love
  • life and death

DISCUSSION
What do you know about Gaelic? Think about

  • where it is spoken
  • where and when you come across Gaelic, spoken and / or written
  • Gaelic place-names you know, local to you, or in other parts of Scotland
  • writers who write or wrote in the language
  • singers and musicians who use the language in their work

Do you think Gaelic should be taught and used more widely in Scotland? Why?
RESEARCH
Learn the stars’ “names properly”, or at least some of them. There are many star-maps, and lists of star-names, available online, at for example

Most star names are derived from Latin or Arabic – find out what the names are in Gaelic and English, or in another language you are learning, or can speak.

CREATIVE ACTIVITY

Write a poem about your relationship with a member of your family.
Before you start, make some notes about

  • where you’ll set the poem
  • when you’ll set the poem – time of day, season
  • what the two of you talk about
  • what remains unsaid
  • any creatures that appear in the poem – pets, farm animals, wild animals (including birds)
  • something you’d wish for the other person

Try writing the poem in four verses:

  • the first verse outlines who you are with, where and when
  • the second verse outlines what you’re talking about
  • the third verse outlines what you don’t talk about
  • the fourth verses begins, “I wish I could…”

FURTHER READING & LINKS
Books by Meg Bateman

Orain Ghaoil / Amhráin Ghrá (Baile Átha Cliath: Coiscéim, 1990)

Aotromachd agus Dàin Eile / Lightness and other Poems (Edinburgh: Polygon, 1997)

Soirbheas / Fair Wind (Edinburgh: Polygon, 2007)

Other books

The Harps' Cry / Gair nan Clarsach: An Anthology of 17th Century Gaelic Poetry, edited by Colm O Baoill and Meg Bateman

Scottish religious poetry: from the sixth century to the present: an anthology, edited by Meg Bateman, Robert Crawford and James McGonigal (Saint Andrew Press, 2000)

Duanaire Na Sracaire: Anthology of Scottish Gaelic Verse to 1600, edited by Meg Bateman and Wilson MacLeod (Birlinn, 2007)

Websites

SPL page on Meg Bateman

Gaelic-language page with videos of Meg Bateman reading her poems

Audio recordings of Meg Bateman reading her poems in Gaelic, with the text of the poem available in Gaelic, English and German
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Ken Cockburn

July 2012

National Poetry Day Scotland & loads more ideas for working with poetry