Midsummer Night Dreams and Related Poems

Midsummer Night Dreams and Related Poems comprises ten of Hogg's poems which, in very different ways, explore the visionary and supernatural, and one writer's portrayal of them, echoing the subject and title of Shakespeare's famous play. Chief among these poems is The Pilgrims of the Sun, a visionary journey which seeks to demonstrate Hogg's command not only of his native Scottish tradition of poetry but also of English and even European traditions, including those of Milton and Pope, Dante and Byron. Its counterpart is the hellish visionary journey of the weirdly brilliant 'Connel of Dee'. In another poem Hogg reflects upon the carnage of 'The Field of Waterloo'. He recounts the departure of the fairies from Scotland in 'The Gyre Caryl', and challenges the Enlightenment dismissal of the supernatural in 'Superstition'. From his dramatic sketch 'The Haunted Glen' to his commemoration of the famous comet of 1811, and from the plaintive balladry of 'The Mermaid' to the rumbustious comic delusions of 'The Powris of Moseke', Hogg substantiates in full his vaunted claim to be 'King o' the mountain and fairy school' of poetry. This is the first complete edition of Midsummer Night Dreams and Related Poems since the appearance of Hogg's Poetical Works of 1822. It provides a carefully corrected and fully annotated text of all ten poems with Hogg's own notes to The Pilgrims of the Sun. It has a full editorial apparatus, and a supplementary essay on Hogg and Otherworld Journeys from Dante to Byron.