ABSTRACT
In the last section of the poem MacDiarmid speaks for himself; tells the great MacCrimmon pipers that he is with them and therefore cut off from his fellow men. MacDiarmid focuses his attention on the storm beach and is touched by the movement of a bird as it soars above the stones. We are given a poetic account of what it was like in the beginning when the stones emerged in the shape of things to come: So astonishing is this evidence of the creative force that the poet applauds it and responds to its promise of immortality. The reader has to accept the poet's word on questions of creativity: From his position as a creative individual MacDiarmid surveys civilisation and treats it critically as a collective creation of an evolving species. As we have seen several of the propagandist poems 'At the Cenotaph', 'One of the Principal Causes of War', 'As Lovers Do', 'From an "Ode to All Rebels" ' are part of the 'Ode to All Rebels' rendered into English. In his poems on 'Edinburgh' and 'Glasgow' where we find references to 'the darkness of industrialism' (646) and 'darkness of spirit' (1049) MacDiarmid articulates his contempt for cities. Here we see its strength for MacDiarmid believes that by a stupendous effort of will the visionary poet can see in 'the despised slum-crowd' (564) what they hardly apprehend in themselves.
