Robert Cunninghame-Graham, later more commonly styled Robert Bontine Cunninghame Graham of Gartmore and Finlaystone, was born in 1735 and died at Gartmore on 11 December 1797. He is remembered, if at all, by most readers for a single durable lyric, “If Doughty Deeds My Lady Please,” a poem whose compact music and courtly ardour secured it a place in Victorian anthologies and in the repertory of composers. Yet the poe…
“The greatest luxury in life is to be able to do what you like, when you like, and how you like.”
Neighbourhood:
Light Verse Poets, Romantic Poets, Scottish Poets, Social Justice Poets
Emotional landscape: Longing, Tenderness, Joy
James Graham, first Marquess of Montrose, was born in 1612 and died on 21 May 1650. He occupies an unusual place in British literary and political history: a Scottish aristocrat whose short life contained religious revolution, civil war, spectacular military success, exile, defeat, and execution; a Royalist commander remembered as “the Great Montrose”; and a poet whose surviving verses, though few, have remained memo…
“I am very willing to lay down my life, and I bless God that I have a clear conscience before him.”
Neighbourhood:
Cavalier Poets, Love Poets, Scottish Poets
Emotional landscape: Sorrow, Despair, Fear
