Easter Ross 1836

[Brownlie]

This whole thing seems pretty tight, making it hard for me to critique it. All I can really do is put up some hypothetical points of critique that may or may not be useful.

Easter Ross 1836            
 
 
Fifty years after the clearances began
an unholy trinity stalks the glens: - do you need the? can you replace it with something?
 
Eviction, Poverty, Famine
 
The blind sennachie warns us
Make signs against evil eye
too late; the Great Sheep
is already here. - do you need already?
 
From their pulpits, preachers - do you need their? Maybe you could use an adjective to describe the pulpits. 
denounce our wickedness - do you need our? Maybe you could find a better word to add to wickedness.
His providence and mercy
has sent this scourge -- do you need has? is the voice of the preacher compromised if you remove it?
to bring you to repentance-- can you cut from here?
 
and leave us to starve, -- If leave is meant to modify preachers then subject/verb agrmnt is good.
freezing to death in our fields - Two prepositions can you condense or get rid of unneeded language.
or burned alive in our homes;
 
whole villages,
whole bloodlines
annihilated in the time
it takes to nail doors shut
set fire to the cottage
and move on to the next
 
leaving no one to grieve, -- no grief?
no tears, no stones
placed over our bones:
just summer grass,
winter snow, wind
off the lochs
and the Great Sheep’s dung. - good last word.
 
 
 I was reminded of this poem when I read the Irish famine poem on a thread earlier. I wrote it years ago, just pulled it out again. Any ideas welcome.

Seems pretty good to me as is, though I know nothing about this time period. Good luck with it.