Rhoda Butler

Rhoda Bulter (15 July 1929 – 1994), Shetland author, is one of the best-known Shetland poets of recent times.

Born Rhoda Jernetta Ann Johnson, in Lerwick, she was the daughter of Jeremiah Johnson, seaman, from West Houlland in the parish of Walls, and Barbara Huano Thomason, from Da Horn, Lower Skelberry, Lunnasting. In January 1949 she married Dennis Bulter, 'Met man’ from Lerwick Observatory.

Her first poem, 'Fladdabister', was published in The New Shetlander in 1970, following which she became a prolific writer in the Shetland dialect. For various reasons, her literary legacy is as yet uncollected. Four slim volumes of verse were published in her lifetime – Shaela, A Nev Foo a Coarn (subsequently combined as Doobled-Up), Linkstanes and Snyivveries

Rhoda was a frequent contributor to the local Radio Shetland, reading her poems, and forming a double act known as "Tamar and Beenie' with local broadcaster and freelance journalist Mary Blance.

She also, over a number of years, wrote a regular monthly column for Shetland Life magazine, the fictional Beenie’s Diary.

This 22 track CD, a re-release of her 1976 LP was issued through BleatBeat Records on 9 December 2006 and featured recordings of Rhoda reading the following selection of her poetry:

Rhoda Bulter (1929–94) is one of our most popular poets today. She published four volumes of verse all in the dialect ... Humorous, satirical, meditative and always vividly descriptive her poetry is a triumphant assertion of the vitality of the Shetland dialect today. Her poems reflect an intense love of the local scene, the land and the sea, the flowers, the birds, the animals, and the crofting communities she knew when young. Her pictures of the old traditional life could have been simply nostalgic, but she is saved from this by the vivid realism and intimacy of detail which vitalise, these scenes. She is conscious too of the darker side of life and is moved to bitterness and anger by the destructive side of man, his greed, his abuse of the land, his cruelty to wild life, industrial exploitation and the ultimate crime of nuclear war … …Rhoda Bulter never regarded land as a commodity. She saw herself as belonging to that land, a land to care for and to love.

Rhoda Jernetta Ann Johnson was born on 15th July 1929 in Lerwick. Johnson she remained until her marriage in January 1949 to Dennis Bulter, 'Met man’ from Lerwick Observatory. Her father, Jeremiah Johnson, a seaman by profession, came from West Houlland in the parish of Walls. Her mother, born Barbara Huano Thomason, was from Da Horn, Lower Skelberry, Lunnasting … As she gave herself to the demands of motherhood her other creative skills lay quiescent, disturbed now and again by a bairn's rhyme, reflecting the fun and the excitement of their family life. Like everybody else her family experienced stresses and strains, coming out of these with the unifying bonds all the more clearly defined, and stronger. The eventual Rhoda emerged – perceptive, honed in the years of parental and marital adjustment. Her experience gave an intensity and profundity to the outpourings of her pen. Rhoda's first published writing was in the pages of The New Shetlander – the poem 'Fladdabister' – embodying as it does the familiar combination of an evocative description with her gift of placing what she had seen in a historical and social context. It was a happy union with 'The New Shetlander', rewarding to both. Never long missing was her explosive humour … Her vigour and versatility got fuller and fuller expression as her family came to adulthood. The riches of her mind and pen poured forth in remarkable measure, firstly in her verse. There followed Beenie’s Diary in Shetland Life, then ‘Tamar and Beenie' on Radio Shetland, using so freely the dialect word. Her radio and TV work, based on scripts provided by herself, enriched us all …

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