Morgan was born in Glasgow and grew up in Rutherglen. His parents were Presbyterians. As a child he was not surrounded by books, nor did he have any literary acquaintances and schoolmates labelled him a swot. He convinced his parents to finance his membership of several book clubs in Glasgow. The Faber Book of Modern Verse (1936) was a "revelation" to him, he later said.

Morgan entered the University of Glasgow in 1937. It was at university that he studied French and Russian, while self-educating in "a good bit of Italian and German" as well. After interrupting his studies to serve in World War II as a non-combatant conscientious objector with the Royal Army Medical Corps, Morgan graduated in 1947 and became a lecturer at the University. He worked there until his retirement in 1980.

Morgan came out as gay in Nothing Not Giving Messages: Reflections on his Work and Life (1990), but explored his sexuality in many previous works. He had written many famous love poems, among them "Strawberries" and "The Unspoken", in which the love object was not gendered; this was partly because of legal problems at the time but also out of a desire to universalise them, as he made clear in an interview with Marshall Walker available from Carcanet Press.

At the opening of the Glasgow LGBT Centre in 1995, he read a poem he had written for the occasion, and presented it to the Centre as a gift.

In 2002 he became the patron of Our Story Scotland. At the Opening of the Scottish Parliament building in Edinburgh on 9 October 2004, Liz Lochhead read a poem written especially for the occasion by Morgan, titled Poem for the Opening of the Scottish Parliament.

Near the end of his life, Morgan reached a new audience after collaborating with the Scottish band Idlewild on their album The Remote Part. In the closing moments of the album's final track "In Remote Part/ Scottish Fiction", he recites a poem, "Scottish Fiction", written specifically for the song. In 2007, Morgan contributed two poems to the compilation Ballads of the Book for which a range of Scottish writers created poems to be made into songs by Scottish musicians. Morgan's songs "The Good Years" and "The Weight of Years" were performed by Karine Polwart and Idlewild respectively. His work also influenced the 'Sonnets from Scotland' series by landscape photographer Alex Boyd.

Nobel Laureate Seamus Heaney "[paid] formal homage" during a 2005 visit.

In later life he was cared for at a residential home as his illness worsened, though he published a collection in April 2010 titled Dreams and Other Nightmares, months before his death to mark his 90th birthday. At times he suffered pain. Up until his death, he was the last survivor of the canonical 'Big Seven' (the others being Hugh MacDiarmid, Robert Garioch, Norman MacCaig, Iain Crichton Smith, George Mackay Brown, and Sorley MacLean).

On 17 August 2010, Edwin Morgan died of pneumonia in Glasgow, Scotland, at the age of 90 years. The Scottish Poetry Library made the announcement in the morning. Tributes came from, among others, politicians Alex Salmond and Iain Gray, as well as Carol Ann Duffy, the UK's Poet Laureate.

• Beowulf: A Verse Translation into Modern English, Hand and Flower Press, 1952
• The Vision of Cathkin Braes and Other Poems, William MacLellan, 1952
• The Cape of Good Hope (limited edition), Pound Press, 1955
• Poems from Eugenio Montale (translator), School of Art, University of Reading, 1959
• Sovpoems: Brecht, Neruda, Pasternak, Tsvetayeva, Mayakovsky, Martynov, Yevtushenko (translator) Migrant Press, 1961
• Collins Albatross Book of Longer Poems (editor) Collins, 1963
• Starryveldt Eugen Gomringer Press, 1965
• Emergent Poems Hansjörg Mayer, 1967
• Gnomes Akros publications, 1968
• The Second Life Edinburgh University Press, 1968
• Selected Poems of Sándor Weöres and Selected Poems of Ferenc Juhász (translator and introduction for Sándor Weöres) Penguin, 1970
• The Horseman's Word: Concrete Poems Akros, 1970
• Twelve Songs Castlelaw Press, 1970
• Glasgow Sonnets Castlelaw Press, 1972
• Instamatic Poems Ian McKelvie, 1972
• Wi the haill voice: 25 poems by Vladimir Mayakovsky (translator and glossary) Carcanet, 1972
• From Glasgow to Saturn Carcanet, 1973
• Nuspeak8: Being a Visual Poem by Edwin Morgan Scottish Arts Council, 1973
• The Whittrick: a Poem in Eight Dialogues Akros, 1973
• Essays Carcanet, 1974
• Fifty Renascence Love-Poems (translator) Whiteknights Press, 1975
• Rites of Passage (translator) Carcanet Press, 1976
• Edwin Morgan: an interview by Marshall Walker Akros, 1977
• The New Divan Carcanet Press, 1977
• Selected poems by August Graf von Platen-Hallermünde (translator) Castlelaw Press, 1978
• Star Gate: Science Fiction Poems Third Eye Centre, 1979
• Scottish Satirical Verse (compiler) Carcanet, 1980
• Grendel Mariscat, 1982
• Poems of Thirty Years Carcanet Press, 1982
• The Apple-Tree (modern version of a medieval Dutch play) Third Eye Centre, 1982
• Grafts Mariscat, 1983
• Sonnets from Scotland Mariscat, 1984
• Selected Poems Carcanet Press, 1985
• From the Video Box Mariscat, 1986
• Newspoems Wacy, 1987
• Tales from Limerick Zoo (illustrated by David Neilson) Mariscat, 1988
• Themes on a Variation Carcanet Press, 1988
• Collected Poems (republished 1996 with index) Carcanet Press, 1990
• Crossing the Border: Essays on Scottish Literature Carcanet Press, 1990
• Nothing Not Giving Messages: Reflections on his Work and Life (edited by Hamish Whyte) Polygon, 1990
• Hold Hands Among the Atoms: 70 Poems Mariscat, 1991
• Edmond Rostand's Cyrano de Bergerac: A New Verse Translation (translator) Carcanet Press, 1992
• Fragments by József Attila (translator) Morning Star Publications, 1992
• MacCaig, Morgan, Lochhead: Three Scottish Poets (edited and introduced by Roderick Watson) Canongate, 1992
• Cecilia Vicuña:PALABRARmas/WURDWAPPINschaw Morning Star Publications, 1994
• Sweeping Out the Dark Carcanet Press, 1994
• Long Poems – But How Long? (W. D. Thomas Memorial Lecture) University of Wales, Swansea, 1995
• Collected Translations Carcanet Press, 1996
• St. Columba: The Maker on High (translator) Mariscat, 1997
• Virtual and Other Realities Carcanet Press, 1997
• Chistopher Marlowe's Dr Faustus (a new version) Canongate, 1999
• Demon Mariscat, 1999
• A.D.: A Trilogy of Plays on the Life of Jesus Carcanet, 2000
• Jean Racine: Phaedra (translation of Phèdre) Carcanet Press, 2000 (Oxford-Weidenfeld Translation Prize)
• New Selected Poems Carcanet Press, 2000
• Attila József: Sixty Poems (translator) Mariscat, 2001
• Cathures Carcanet Press, 2002
• Love and a Life: 50 Poems by Edwin Morgan Mariscat, 2003
• The Battle of Bannockburn (translator) SPL in association with Akros and Mariscat, 2004
• Tales from Baron Munchausen Mariscat, 2005
• The Play of Gilgamesh Carcanet Press, 2005
• Thirteen Ways of Looking at Rillie Enitharmon, 2006
• A Book of Lives Carcanet Press, 2007

Poetry

Morgan has worked in a wide range of forms and styles, from the sonnet to concrete poetry. His Collected Poems appeared in 1990. He has also translated from a wide range of languages, including Russian, Hungarian, French, Italian, Latin, Spanish, Portuguese, German and Old English (Beowulf). Many of these are collected in Rites of Passage. Selected Translations (1976). Carcanet Press – Edwin Morgan. His 1952 translation of Beowulf has since become a standard translation in America.

Morgan is also known to be influenced by the American beat poets, with their simple, accessible ideas and language being prominent features in his work.

In 1968 Morgan wrote a poem entitled Starlings In George Square. This poem could be read as a comment on society's reluctance to accept the integration of different races. Other people have also considered it to be about the Russian Revolution in which "Starling" could be a reference to "Stalin".

Other notable poems include:

• The Death of Marilyn Monroe (1962) – an outpouring of emotion after the loss of one of the world's most talented women.
• The Billy Boys (1968) – flashback of the gang warfare in Glasgow led by Billy Fullerton in the Thirties.
• Glasgow 5 March 1971 – robbery by two youths by pushing an unsuspecting couple through a shop window on Sauchiehall Street
• In the Snackbar – concise description of an encounter with a disabled pensioner in a Glasgow restaurant.
• A Good Year for Death (26 September 1977) – a description of five famous people from the world of popular culture who died in 1977
• Poem for the Opening of the Scottish Parliament – which was read by Liz Lochhead at the opening ceremony because he was too ill. (9 October 2004)

Morgan received several honorary degrees, was bestowed with an OBE in 1982 and was shortlisted for the T. S. Eliot Prize in 2007 for A Book of Lives.

• 1972 PEN Memorial Medal (Hungary)
• 1982 OBE
• 1983 Scottish Book of the Year Award for Poems of Thirty Years
• 1985 Soros Translation Award (New York)
• 1998 Stakis Prize for Scottish Writer of the Year for Virtual and Other Realities
• 2000 Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry
• 2001 Oxford-Weidenfeld Translation Prize for Jean Racine: Phaedra
• 2003 Jackie Forster Memorial Award for Culture
• 2008 Scottish Book of the Year Award

Awards listed on the British Council Contemporary Writers website.