Rachel Annand Taylor (3 April 1876 – 15 August 1960) was a

Scottish Scottish usually refers to something of, from, or related to Scotland, including: *Scottish Gaelic, a Celtic Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family native to Scotland *Scottish English *Scottish national identity, the Scottish ide ...

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator (thought, thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral t ...

, prominent in the

Celtic Revival The Celtic Revival (also referred to as the Celtic Twilight) is a variety of movements and trends in the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries that see a renewed interest in aspects of Celtic culture. Artists and writers drew on the traditions of Gae ...

, and later a biographer and literary critic.

Life and work

Born in

Aberdeen Aberdeen ( ; ; ) is a port city in North East Scotland, and is the List of towns and cities in Scotland by population, third most populous Cities of Scotland, Scottish city. Historically, Aberdeen was within the historic county of Aberdeensh ...

to stonemason John Annand and his wife Clarinda Dinnie, Rachel Annand was one of the first women to study at

Aberdeen University The University of Aberdeen (abbreviated ''Aberd.'' in post-nominals; ) is a public research university in Aberdeen, Scotland. It was founded in 1495 when William Elphinstone, Bishop of Aberdeen and Chancellor of Scotland, petitioned Pope Al ...

, where her tutor was

Herbert Grierson Sir Herbert John Clifford Grierson, FBA (16 January 1866 – 19 February 1960) was a Scottish literary scholar, editor, and literary critic. Life and work He was born in Lerwick, Shetland, on 16 January 1866. He was the son of Andrew John Grie ...

. Later she taught at

Aberdeen High School for Girls Harlaw Academy is a six-year comprehensive secondary school situated 200 yards from the junction of Union Street and Holburn Street in the centre of Aberdeen, Scotland. It is directly adjacent to St Margaret's School for Girls. The academy draw ...

on a site which is now Harlaw Academy and carries a yellow plaque commemorating her. Although she never took her degree, she was awarded an honorary LLD from Aberdeen University in 1943. Rachel Annand married Alexander C. Taylor in 1901 and lived in Dundee, mixing in Celtic Revival circles. In 1905 they were on the Hebridean island of

Eriskay Eriskay (), from the Old Norse for "Eric's Isle", is an island and community council area of the Outer Hebrides in northern Scotland with a population of 143, as of the United Kingdom Census 2011, 2011 census. It lies between South Uist and Bar ...

, to which she later devoted a poem. Also resident there at the time was John Duncan, who was to paint her portrait two years later. In this she is standing in front of a tapestry wearing a smock, beads and enamelled jewellery. In her hands is a finely bound book, which may allude to her own first collection of poems, published in 1904. Her husband's mental illness eventually led to their separation, and by 1910 she was living in

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. In that year

D. H. Lawrence David Herbert Lawrence (11 September 1885 – 2 March 1930) was an English novelist, short story writer, poet, playwright, literary critic, travel writer, essayist, and painter. His modernist works reflect on modernity, social alienation ...

met her at a literary party and, on being invited later to give a talk to the Croydon branch of the

English Association The English Association is a subject association for English dedicated to furthering the study and enjoyment of English language and literature in schools, higher education institutes and amongst the public in general. It was founded in 1906 by ...

, made her the subject. His audience were not alone in thinking her writing "fantastic decadent stuff". Others too found her arch-vespertine style "cloying", although

Richard Aldington Richard Aldington (born Edward Godfree Aldington; 8 July 1892 – 27 July 1962) was an English writer and poet. He was an early associate of the Imagist movement. His 50-year writing career covered poetry, novels, criticism and biography. He ed ...

, G.K. Chesterton and

Hilaire Belloc Joseph Hilaire Pierre René Belloc ( ; ; 27 July 187016 July 1953) was a French-English writer, politician, and historian. Belloc was also an orator, poet, sailor, satirist, writer of letters, soldier, and political activist. His Catholic fait ...

were among her admirers. In addition

Edmund Rubbra Edmund Rubbra (; 23 May 190114 February 1986) was a British composer. He composed both instrumental and vocal works for soloists, chamber groups and full choruses and orchestras. He was greatly esteemed by fellow musicians and was at the peak o ...

set her “Rosa Mundi” as the second of his ''Two songs for medium voice'' (op. 2) in 1921. There is something of the earlier

W. B. Yeats William Butler Yeats (, 13 June 186528 January 1939), popularly known as W. B. Yeats, was an Irish poet, dramatist, writer, and literary critic who was one of the foremost figures of 20th-century literature. He was a driving force behind the ...

, especially in titles such as "The heavenly love is discontented with his lute" and "A soul laments the decay of her body", in her collection ''Rose and Vine'' (1909). That was followed by the compact sonnet sequence ''The Hours of Fiametta'' (1910), in which a modern critic has detected the even earlier influence of

Dante Gabriel Rossetti Gabriel Charles Dante Rossetti (12 May 1828 – 9 April 1882), generally known as Dante Gabriel Rossetti ( ; ), was an English poet, illustrator, painter, translator, and member of the Rossetti family. He founded the Pre-Raphaelite Brother ...

Hugh MacDiarmid Christopher Murray Grieve (11 August 1892 – 9 September 1978), best known by his pen name Hugh MacDiarmid ( , ), was a Scottish poet, journalist, essayist and political figure. He is considered one of the principal forces behind the Scottish ...

found promise in the way she dealt with consciously female themes there, but judged that ultimately her insistence on a bygone manner "robbed the

Scottish Renaissance The Scottish Renaissance (; ) was a mainly literary movement of the early to mid-20th century that can be seen as the Scottish version of modernism. It is sometimes referred to as the Scottish literary renaissance, although its influence went be ...

of one whose true place should have been at its head". He liked her enough, however, to include two of her poems in the ''Golden Treasury of Scottish Verse'' (1940): "The Princess of Scotland" and "Ecstasy”. A considerable number of her poems had religious themes and were of sufficient quality to be anthologised in ''The Oxford Book of Mystical Verse'' (1917). They included "The Immortal Hour", "The Question" and "The Night Obscure of the Soul”. Though many are marked by Pre-Raphaelite mediaevalism, some poems achieved the directness and point of the best of the

Metaphysical Metaphysics is the branch of philosophy that examines the basic structure of reality. It is traditionally seen as the study of mind-independent features of the world, but some theorists view it as an inquiry into the conceptual framework of h ...

tradition of religious writing. "The Question" is an outstanding example: ::I saw the Son of God go by ::Crowned with the crown of Thorn. ::"Was it not finished, Lord?” I said, ::"And all the anguish borne?” ::He turned on me His awful eyes: ::"Hast thou not understood? ::Lo! Every soul is Calvary, ::And every sin a Rood".''Rose and Vine'', p. 27
Thereafter, Mrs Taylor largely concentrated on the Italian

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) is a Periodization, period of history and a European cultural movement covering the 15th and 16th centuries. It marked the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and was characterized by an effort to revive and sur ...

studies she published between 1923 and 1930 and on her critical work. She was still living in London when she died in 1960.

Works

''Poems''
(1904)
''Rose and Vine''
(1909) *

' (1910) *''The End of Fiammetta'' (London 1923; New York 1924)
''Aspects of the Italian Renaissance''
(1923, reprinted 1968)
''Leonardo the Florentine: A Study in Personality''
(1927, reprinted in 2003, )
''Invitation to Renaissance Italy''
(1930), a revised and enlarged version of ''Aspects of the Italian Renaissance'' *''

Dunbar Dunbar () is a town on the North Sea coast in East Lothian in the south-east of Scotland, approximately east of Edinburgh and from the Anglo–Scottish border, English border north of Berwick-upon-Tweed. Dunbar is a former royal burgh, and ...

, the Poet and his Period'' (1931, reprinted 1969) *''Renaissance France'' (unpublished manuscript, National Library of Scotland)

References

External links

* ''Poetry Explorer'
74 poems

"Rachel Annand Taylor"
in ''New Cambridge Bibliography of English Literature'' (1969) * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Taylor, Rachel Annand 1876 births 1960 deaths Scottish women poets Poets from Dundee