This collection offers more than 400 poems from 150 poets. While the major figures -- MacDiarmid, Norman MacCaig, Iain Crichton Smith, and George Mackay Brown -- are generously represented, there are many other lesser-known voices, from the master balladeer of the Yukon, Robert Service and the internationally known psychiatrist R. D. Laing to the economist Sir Alec Cairncross and the troubled but eloquent Rayne Mackinnon. With their lively engagement of history and the world of private creativity, the poems in this anthology contribute to a fuller understanding and appreciation of Scottish literary and cultural identity.