[1] Norman Alexander MacCaig was born at 15 East London Street, Edinburgh, to Robert McCaig (1880–1950?

Douglas Dunn has suggested that MacCaig's career later suffered as a result of his outspoken pacifism, although this is disputed.

MacCaig often gave public readings of his work in Edinburgh and elsewhere; these were extremely popular and for many people were the first introduction to the poet.

His life is also noteworthy for the friendships he had with a number of other Scottish poets, such as Hugh MacDiarmid and Douglas Dunn.

In his later years he relaxed some of the formality of his work, losing the rhymes and strict metricality but always strove to maintain the lucidity.

[citation needed] Although he never lost his sense of humour, much of his very late work, following the death of his wife in 1990, is more sombre in tone.

An example of this is his poem "Praise of a Man" which was quoted by Gordon Brown in the eulogy he gave at the funeral of Robin Cook in 2005:[6]The beneficent lights dim but don't vanish.