A Drunk Man Looks at the Thistle is a long poem by Hugh MacDiarmid written in Scots and published in 1926.
 It is composed as a form of monologue with influences from stream of consciousness genres of writing.
 A poem of extremes, it ranges between comic and serious modes and examines a wide range of cultural, sexual, political, scientific, existential, metaphysical and cosmic themes, ultimately unified through one consistent central thread, the poet's affectively charged contemplation, looking askance at the condition of Scotland.
 It also includes extended and complex responses to figures from European and Russian literature, in particular Dostoevsky and Nietzsche, as well as referencing topical events and personalities of the mid-1920s such as Isadora Duncan or the UK General Strike of 1926.
 It is one of the major modernist literary works of the 20th century.
Harold Lenoir Davis (October 18, 1894–October 31, 1960), also known as H. L. Davis, was an American novelist and poet.
 A native of Oregon, he won the Pulitzer Prize for his novel "Honey in the Horn", the only Pulitzer given to a native Oregonian.
 Later living in California and Texas, he also wrote short stories for magazines such as "The Saturday Evening Post".
Sodom (known locally as Sudheim) is a settlement on Whalsay, Shetland.
 The name is a corruption of the Old Norse "Suðheim" meaning "south home".
 It was formerly the home of Hugh MacDiarmid, who was greatly amused at the anglicised form of the name.
The Poetry Association of Scotland (or PAS), formerly known as the Scottish Association for the Speaking of Verse, is a public, membership-based literary society founded in 1924 principally by John Masefield (along with other figures such as Marion Angus and Hugh MacDiarmid).
Marion Emily Angus (1865–1946) was a Scottish poet who wrote in the Scots vernacular or Braid Scots, defined variously as a dialect of English or a language closely related to it.
 Her prose writings were mainly in standard English.
 She is seen as a forerunner of a Scottish renaissance in inter-war poetry, as her verse marked a departure from the Lallans tradition of Robert Burns in a direction similar to that of Hugh MacDiarmid, Violet Jacob and others.
Christopher Murray Grieve (11 August 1892 – 9 September 1978), known by his pen name Hugh MacDiarmid ( ), was a Scottish poet, journalist, essayist and political figure.
 He is best known for his works written in 'synthetic Scots', a literary version of the Scots language that MacDiarmid himself developed.
 However, Grieve's earliest work -- such as "Annals of the Five Senses" was written in English, and from the early 1930s onwards much of the poetry published under MacDiarmid's name was written in an English that was supplemented to varying degrees by scientific and technical vocabularies.
Sir Compton Mackenzie, OBE ( ; 17 January 1883 – 30 November 1972) was an English born Scottish writer of fiction, biography, histories and a memoir, as well as a cultural commentator, raconteur and lifelong Scottish nationalist.
 He was one of the co-founders in 1928 of the Scottish National Party along with Hugh MacDiarmid, RB Cunninghame Graham and John MacCormick.
 He was knighted in 1952.
Professor Duncan Munro Glen (11 January 1933 – 20 September 2008) was a Scottish poet, literary editor and Emeritus Professor of Visual Communication at Nottingham Trent University.
 He became known to the literary world through his first full-length book, "Hugh MacDiarmid and the Scottish Renaissance".
 He published many collections of poetry, from "Kythings and other poems" (1969), "In Appearances" (1971) and "Realities Poems" (1980) to "Selected Poems 1965–1990" (1991), "Selected New Poems 1987–1996" (1998) and "Collected Poems 1965–2005" (2006).
 His "Autobiography of a Poet" was published by Ramsay Head Press in 1986.
 He edited "Akros" magazine through 51 numbers from August 1965 and did much to promote Scottish poets and artists.
 He was a friend and early champion of Hugh MacDiarmid and Ian Hamilton Finlay among others, and produced several volumes of poetry, some of which was translated into Italian.
Seán Rafferty (5 February 1909, Kettleholm, Dumfriesshire, Scotland – 4 December 1993, Iddesleigh, Devon, England) was a Scottish poet, based in England from 1932 until his death.
 His poetry has been praised by Sorley MacLean, Ted Hughes, Michael Morpurgo and Hugh MacDiarmid and published in collections by the major British poetry presses Carcanet and Etruscan.
Ach' An Todhair, a small hamlet on the shore of Loch Linnhe in the Fort William area, is in the Scottish council area of the Highland, Scotland.
 It is located along the A82 road directly south of Fort William.
 A bus serves the hamlet, connecting it to Fort William in the north and Corran and Inchree to the south.
 A number of graves of Clan Campbell are said to be located in this area of the lochside.
 It is mentioned in a poem in Hugh MacDiarmid's poetry collection "The golden treasury of Scottish poetry" which goes, "the sloucher of them was lying in Ach' an Todhair.
 Whoso climbed Tom na-h-aire ?
 Many were the new paws there badly salted, the death-cloud on their eyes, lifeless after being scourged with sword-blades".

Question: Are H. L. Davis and Hugh MacDiarmid both political figures?
Answer: no