Lament for the Makaris
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"I that in Heill wes and Gladnes", also known as "The Lament for the Makaris", is a poem in the form of a danse macabre by the Scottish poet William Dunbar. Every fourth line repeats the Latin refrain
Breughel, The Triumph of Death (detail)
Makar
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A makar is a term from Scottish literature for a poet or bard, often thought of as a royal court poet.
Lament for the Makaris
…me (fear of death troubles me), a litanic phrase from the Office of the Dead. Apart from its literary quality, the poem is notable for the list of makars it contains, some of whom are historically attestable as poets only from Dunbar's testimony in this work. After listing Lydgate, Gower and Chaucer, the…
St Andrews Cathedral, St Andrews, now in ruins: one of Scotland's key buildings in the classic period of the Makars and a possible presence in some of Dunbar's spiritual works
Rosslyn Chapel; built in the century of the makars, the famed intricacy of its carving shares much in spirit with the aureation in their language.
Nicola Sturgeon and the new 2021 Makar Kathleen Jamie outside the Scottish Poetry Library