W. D. Cocker

William Dixon Cocker (13 October 1882 – 1970) was a Scottish poet who wrote in both Scots and English.

Life

Born in Rutherglen, W. D. Cocker was born into a family of Glasgow merchants,[1] although his family connections to the rural Drymen area where he learned Scots.[2]

In the First World War, he served with the Highland Light Infantry, and was taken prisoner in 1917. His war poetry is fairly limited in scope, but includes the poems "Up the Line to Poelkapelle", "The Sniper" and a five-part sonnet cycle entitled "Sonnets in Captivity".

After the war Cocker entered the account department of the Daily Record, and was the paper's drama citic until retirement in 1956.[1] He is best known for his humorous poems in Scots, often on Biblical themes, such as "The Deluge", on the story of Noah and the Flood. Books of his poems include "Poems: Scots and English", "Further Poems", "New Poems" and "Randon Rhymes and Ballads".[3]

References
  1. Maurice Lindsay and Lesley Duncan, The Edinburgh book of twentieth-century Scottish poetry, p.378
  2. Significant Scots | William Dixon Cocker, Electric Scotland
  3. all published by Brown, Son & Ferguson, Ltd., Glasgow
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