Review of the Magicians of Edinburgh by Ron Butlin

Ron Butlin is a highly acclaimed contemporary Scottish poet, novelist, short-story writer, radio playwright, librettist and journalist. He has been Writer in Residence in various institutions and in 20082014 was appointed as Edinburgh Makar (Poet Laureate). In Footpath-9 I published the article devoted to Butlin’s novel Ghost Moon (2014) which is deeply grounded in his family secrets and his own personal experience. Last year I received Butlin’s collection of poems The Magicians of Edinburgh (2012) as a Christmas gift. This collection is now in its sixth reprint and I was impressed by the power of the poet’s imagination and varying tones of his poems and decided to write a short review as Ron Butlin’s works are not well known in Russia.

Ron Butlin’s The Magicians of Edinburgh brings together some poems that were published previously in other sources or collections and some poems that were set to music or commissioned for various occasions, they all relate to Butlin’s position and experience of Edinburgh Makar and are dedicated to Scotland’s capital city. The poetic collection is carefully structured and divided into three parts, it contains poems both in English and Scots (for example, ‘Oor Tram’s Plea tae the Cooncillor’s o Edinburgh’ or ‘Edinburgh Love Song’ are written in Scots). Many poems are preceded by the poet’s commentary and remarks on their subjects or sources of inspiration, they include personal issues and references that reveal the poet’s self, show his open and direct engagement with places, landscapes, time, people and his readers.

The first part of the book, the most extensive and diverse, is ‘Magic Edinburgh’. The title-poem, ‘The Magicians of Edinburgh’, introduces multiple themes of the whole collection. It depicts Edin-

burgh as a big city and a busy cultural centre in the twenty-first century, its streets, parks, department stores are crowded with people. Its urban space, cultural heritage and innumerable iconic locations are of greatest importance for both local and national identities which are constantly shaped and reshaped by people living in Edinburgh, who are its true magicians: ‘Together, we are the magicians and we make the city’. The idea of constant making and becoming echoes in ‘A History of the Scottish Parliament’ where past and present merge to shape the future: ‘The history we make, will make us in return’. Local and national identities are symbolically represented by Homecoming of 2009 in the poem ‘Homecoming’:

This is home? You’re welcome.

Living here, we never see our history unless it’s printed on T-shirts, or filmed, or gift-wrapped.

So, help, us. Please.

When you are struggling your suitcases up the Waverley Steps spare us a thought (you and your return ticket).

Show us what you’ve come for.

You’ll find we’re standing on our own two feet, almost. Walk with us a little.

Show us the way home.

Many poems in the collection show Butlin’s ability to render visual impressions, they depict the finest details and subtleties of landscapes and add an unexpected angle or perspective to some painted scenes as in ‘The Singing Butler’. In ‘Going Breughel in Edinburgh’ wintry streets of the city remind the reader of some nearly monochrome winter landscapes by the Flemish painter:

The long slog across the empty park, Breughel’s colours Hardening round them into darkness and chilled stars. A new moon’s cut from purest, near transparent ice.

At Middle Meadow Walk they step into the winter sky –

The first part of the poetry collection does not escape some contemporary problems and concerns of the city. Some poems tackle difficult and disturbing issues and show Butlin’s strong sense of care for beggars or homeless people who die on the streets of Edinburgh (‘EH1 2AB’, ‘West Newton Place’, ‘Nicolson Square’) or teenagers whose life on the streets is preferable to a life they know at home (‘Edinburgh is a Thousand Islands’):

Another morning, another day. Another secret you’ll never share.

No need to struggle to your feet, no need to stand in front of a shop window – you already know you’re invisible. Daylight means invisibility. When you no longer see yourself, you know its morn ing.

Cars. Buses. Vans. Taxis. Shoes trampling past –

Invisible. Invisible. Invisible.

Butlin’s humane tone and caring attitude punctuate sharp contrasts that can be found in Edinburgh.

The second part of the poetry collection is ‘Music Edinburgh’. It reflects Butlin’s love of music and his ability to capture the rhythms of contemporary Scottish music in free verse structures. In part it dwells upon his collaboration with some contemporary Edinburgh-based composers, such as Edward Harper and Lyell Cresswell, and includes a text provided for Harper’s Second Symphony (‘The Time for Miracles’). In ‘Three Composers Respond to the Politics of Perpetual War’ Butlin’s fascination with music turns it into some cosmic power.

The third part of the poetic collection is entitled ‘Virtual Edinburgh’. It is full of subtle witty humour and retains some visionary or fantastic elements. Butlin takes some episodes of David Hume’s life to create short lyrical fantasies around the philosopher (‘David Hume Takes a Last Walk on Arthur’s Seat’), imagines a laborious journey of Sir Walter Scott to Scotland’s new parliament (‘A Day in the Afterlife of Sir Walter Scott’) or ironically introduces a new transport system in Edinburgh which may be integrated with the city buses (‘The Gondolas of the South Bridge’). Butlin’s reflective approach and immediate response to some global issues (wars, the change of climate) catch the poet’s alertness to the world around him and his native Scotland.

Butlin’s The Magicians of Edinburgh celebrates multi-faceted, multi-layered Edinburgh evoking its past and present, its architectural beauty and landscapes, its cultural and political standing, its problems and aspirations, its people. The poet succeeds in expressing his personal feelings in an original way. The varying tones of the poems, ranging from lyrical or celebratory to ironic or satirical, are memorable. Their individual and confident rhythms grasp and hold the attention of the reader.