[citation needed] Masefield was the first president of the association;[2] he gave an address entitled "With the living voice" to the inaugural general meeting in Edinburgh on 24 October 1924,[3] and characterised poetry read aloud as "irresistible".
[7] By 1926 branches had also been formed in Aberdeen and Perth; the association was then "recommended by a formidable array of distinguished names", with every professor of English across Scotland said to number among its vice-presidents.
[10] In its present form, the Association, which is a registered charity, runs an annual series of monthly poetry readings featuring invited poets from both Scottish and international circuits, as well as regular talks on poetry-related topics by distinguished speakers, including its biennial Hugh MacDiarmid Lecture.
The Association's events in recent years have generally, though not exclusively, been held in the Scottish Poetry Library in Edinburgh.
Although a single-tier organisation today, in past decades the Association had multiple area branches throughout Scotland.