title: An Introduction to Gaelic Poetry
author: Derrick Thomson
description: Derick Thomson was born in Stornoway in 1921. He was educated at Aberdeen, Cambridge and Bangor, though his studies were interrupted by war service with the RAF from 1942 to 1945. He went on to lecture in Edinburgh, Glasgow and Aberdeen before becoming Professor of Celtic at Glasgow in 1963, a<br />post he held until his retirement in 1991, receiving an honorary degree from the University in 2007.
zlib_text: **Contents**
  
  > [ Title Page](c1.xhtml)
  
  > Dedication
  
  > Epigraph
  
  > Guide To Pronunciation Of Irish Gaelic Words
  
  > Part I: New Life
  
  > On the Bridge
  
  > What Happened Last Summer
  
  > Shook Woods
  
  > I Didn’t Kill Myself
  
  > Behold
  
  > Shock and Blood Loss
  
  > Colder, Warmer
  
  > History Lessons
  
  > How I Died
  
  > Changing
  
  > Part II: Ancient Death
  
  > My Strange Connection
  
  > Older Divinities
  
  > Under Arrest
  
  > Killed By the Cold
  
  > It’s Really You
  
  > Black Skies and Revelations
  
  > Deepest Desire
  
  > Snowblind
  
  > Wrap the Night Around Me
  
  > The Infinite Potential Of Zero Degrees
  
  > Read the Book – and Listen To the Soundtrack
  
  > Darragh McManus
  
  > Copyright
  
  >  _For our little buachaillín and cailín beag_
  
  > My girl, my girl, where will you go?
  
  > I’m going where the cold wind blows
  
  > In the pines, in the pines
  
  > Where the sun don’t ever shine
  
  > I would shiver the whole night through.
  
  > ‘Where Did You Sleep Last Night?’ __
  
  > Traditional folk song
  
  Guide to pronunciation of Irish Gaelic word