The find was made at the National Library of Scotland

The collection of unknown works by Hugh MacDiarmid was found by a researcher.

One expert on the poet said the discovery had brought to light some "real treasures".

A spokeswoman for the library said the discovery was a wonderful surprise.

It will now be looking at ways of making the manuscripts more accessible to the public.

Library archive

Scholar John Manson, from Dumfriesshire, made the discovery while researching the political views of MacDiarmid, who died in 1978 at the age of 86.

Mr Manson, who edited the first Penguin collection of MacDiarmid's work, found about 300 poems in the library's archive.

Dr Alan Riach, the head of Scottish Literature at Glasgow University and the general editor of the Complete Works of Hugh MacDiarmid, described it as "a wonderful collection".

Here is the work of an independent scholar turning up some real treasures as well as some stuff that is fascinating biographically Dr Alan Riach

However, he said the discovery showed how "desperately under-resourced" the subject of Scottish literature was.

"We need more investment of this kind," he said.

"Here is the work of an independent scholar turning up some real treasures as well as some stuff that is fascinating biographically.

"But we need more work of this kind. It is a real find, it is wonderful."

Dr Riach said the poems offered new angles to consider in MacDiarmid's work.

He said some of the later work was "journalism in verse" which commented on events such as World War Two.

'Deeply humanistic'

"He has a poem about the nature of the Second World War and Hitler, and surprisingly up-to-the minute comments about the nature of war which are very pertinent now," said Dr Riach.

He said that the works also revealed a "deeply humanistic" side to MacDiarmid.

"He was famous for being a Communist and a Scottish Nationalist. There is a famous story about him being thrown out of both parties for belonging to each," he said.

"But at the base of it there is this constant human sympathy that comes through in some of these poems."

We had thought that everything that had been written by MacDiarmid had already been published Jim Ness Biggar Museums Trust

The works include one nine-page poem on the subject of ballet as the revolutionary art of the future.

One other work dating from the Second World War described London as a "foul disease" and said that the poet would "hardly care" if the city was devastated in the Blitz.

Dr Riach said it would be difficult to know where such poems could have been published.

"Some of the things he is saying, speculating and talking about may even be treasonable. They are looking at things from various difficult angles altogether," he said.

The discovery has also been welcomed at the Hugh MacDiarmid Museum near Biggar, which is based at the cottage where the poet and his wife Valda lived from 1951 onwards.

Jim Ness, vice chairman of the Biggar Museum Trust, said: "We had thought that everything that had been written by MacDiarmid had already been published.