Poetry book of the week: The Lost Leader by Mick Imlah

Admirers of Birthmarks, the debut by Mick Imlah, have waited 20 years for a second book, an unusual hiatus. But The Lost Leader is also remarkable for its size — at 124 pages, it is a big book of poems — and for a tonal and technical range which makes most new collections seem like one-note performances.

The book dives into the matter of Scotland. Imlah packs its pages with historical figures (John Knox, Robert the Bruce, Alexander Selkirk), incorporates classical mythology, sport and drunkenness, and manages narrative, dramatic monologue, lyric and elegy with aplomb. Erudite without being stuffy, The Lost Leader is both funny and grave. "Wallflower" — a vision of Sir William Wallace, drawn and quartered by the English in 1305 — ends with a tolling bell and "off he sped/ In several directions", while "Stephen Boyd", one of the book's outstanding poems, includes the couplet "you'd fixed it/ For the powers-that-be up there to pay me/ To do a poetry reading with Kathleen Jamie". Such playfulness amplifies rather than diminishes the writing's power to move the reader, a lesson for po-faced poets everywhere. As the book progresses, the poet himself appears as schoolboy, trespasser, grandson and new father, finding a fresh way to assay the personal.

Its ambition bracing, The Lost Leader is a tour de force, well worth the wait and a strong contender for this year's Forward Prize for Best Collection.