Noo, Davie was first to get sleep in his head,
“The best o’ frien’s maun twine,” he said;
“I’m weariet, an’ here I’m awa’ to my bed.”
An’ the müne was shinin’ clearly!
Twa o’ them walkin’ an’ crackin’ their lane,
The mornin’ licht cam gray an’ plain,
An’ the birds they yammert on stick an’ stane,
An’ the müne was shinin’ clearly!
O years ayont, O years awa’,
My lads, ye’ll mind whate’er befa’ —
My lads, ye’ll mind on the bield o’ the law,
When the müne was shinin’ clearly.
A LOWDEN SABBATH MORN
The clinkum-clank o’ Sabbath bells
Noo to the hoastin’ rookery swells,
Noo faintin’ laigh in shady dells,
Sounds far an’ near,
An’ through the simmer kintry tells
Its tale o’ cheer.
An’ noo, to that melodious play,
A’ deidly awn the quiet sway —
A’ ken their solemn holiday,
Bestial an’ human,
The singin’ lintie on the brae,
The restin’ plou’man,
He, mair than a’ the lave o’ men,
His week completit joys to ken;
Half-dressed, he daunders out an’ in,
Perplext wi’ leisure;
An’ his raxt limbs he’ll rax again
Wi’ painfü’ pleesure.
The steerin’ mither strang afit
Noo shoos the bairnies but a bit;
Noo cries them ben, their Sinday shüit
To scart upon them,
Or sweeties in their pouch to pit,
Wi’ blessin’s on them.
The lasses, clean frae tap to taes,
Are busked in crunklin’ underclaes;
The gartened hose, the weel-filled stays,
The nakit shift,
A’ bleached on bonny greens for days,
An’ white’s the drift.
An’ noo to face the kirkward mile:
The guidman’s hat o’ dacent style,
The blackit shoon, we noo maun fyle
As white’s the miller:
A waefü’ peety tae, to spile
The warth o’ siller.
Our Marg’et, aye sae keen to crack,
Douce-stappin’ in the stoury track,
Her emeralt goun a’ kiltit back
Frae snawy coats,
White-ankled, leads the kirkward pack
Wi’ Dauvit Groats.
A thocht ahint, in runkled breeks,
A’ spiled wi’ lyin’ by for weeks,
The guidman follows closs, an’ cleiks
The sonsie missis;
His sarious face at aince bespeaks
The day that this is.
And aye an’ while we nearer draw
To whaur the kirkton lies alaw,
Mair neebours, comin’ saft an’ slaw
Frae here an’ there,
The thicker thrang the gate an’ caw
The stour in air.
But hark! the bells frae nearer clang;
To rowst the slaw, their sides they bang;
An’ see! black coats a’ready thrang
The green kirkyaird;
And at the yett, the chestnuts spang
That brocht the laird.
The solemn elders at the plate
Stand drinkin’ deep the pride o’ state:
The practised hands as gash an’ great
As Lords o’ Session;
The later named, a wee thing blate
In their expression.
The prentit stanes that mark the deid,
Wi’ lengthened lip, the sarious read;
Syne wag a moraleesin’ heid,
An’ then an’ there
Their hirplin’ practice an’ their creed
Try hard to square.
It’s here our Merren lang has lain,
A wee bewast the table-stane;
An’ yon’s the grave o’ Sandy Blane;
An’ further ower,
The mither’s brithers, dacent men!
Lie a’ the fower.
Here the guidman sall bide awee
To dwall amang the deid; to see
Auld faces clear in fancy’s e’e;
Belike to hear
Auld voices fa’in saft an’ slee
On fancy’s ear.
Thus, on the day o’ solemn things,
The bell that in the steeple swings
To fauld a scaittered faim’ly rings
Its walcome screed;
An’ just a wee thing nearer brings
The quick an’ deid.
But noo the bell is ringin’ in;
To tak their places, folk begin;
The minister himsel’ will shüne
Be up the gate,
Filled fu’ wi’ clavers about sin
An’ man’s estate.
The tünes are up — French, to be shüre,
The faithfü’ French, an’ twa-three mair;
The auld prezentor, hoastin’ sair,
Wales out the portions,
An’ yirks the tüne into the air
Wi’ queer contortions.
Follows the prayer, the readin’ next,
An’ than the fisslin’ for the text —
The twa-three last to find it, vext
But kind o’ proud;
An’ than the peppermints are raxed,
An’ southernwood.
For noo’s the time whan pews are seen
Nid-noddin’ like a mandareen;
When tenty mithers stap a preen
In sleepin’ weans;
An’ nearly half the parochine
Forget their pains.
There’s just a waukrif’ twa or three:
Thrawn commentautors sweer to ‘gree,
Weans glowrin’ at the bumlin’ bee
On windie-glasses,
Or lads that tak a keek a-glee
At sonsie lasses.
Himsel’, meanwhile, frae whaur he cocks
An’ bobs belaw the soundin’-box,
The treesures of his words unlocks
Wi’ prodigality,
An’ deals some unco dingin’ knocks
To infidality.
Wi’ sappy unction, hoo he burkes
The hopes o’ men that trust in works,
Expounds the fau’ts o’ ither kirks,
An’ shaws the best o’ them
No muckle better than mere Turks,
When a’s confessed o’ them.
Bethankit! what a bonny creed!
What mair would ony Christian need? —
The braw words rumm’le ower his heid,
Nor steer the sleeper;
And in their restin’ graves, the deid
Sleep aye the deeper.
Note. — It may be guessed by some that I had a certain parish in my eye, and this makes it proper I should add a word of disclamation. In my time there have been two ministers in that parish. Of the first I have a special reason to speak well, even had there been any to think ill. The second I have often met in private and long (in the due phrase) “sat under” in his church, and neither here nor there have I heard an unkind or ugly word upon his lips. The preacher of the text had thus no original in that particular parish; but when I was a boy, he might have been observed in many others; he was then (like the schoolmaster) abroad; and by recent advices, it would seem he has not yet entirely disappeared.
THE SPAEWIFE
O, I wad like to ken — to the beggar-wife says I —
Why chops are guid to brander and nane sae guid to fry.
An’ siller, that’s sae braw to keep, is brawer still to gi’e.
— It’s gey an’ easy spierin’, says the beggar-wife to me.
O, I wad like to ken — to the beggar-wife says I
—
Hoo a’ things come to be whaur we find them when we try,
The lasses in their claes an’ the fishes in the sea.
— It’s gey an’ easy spierin’, says the beggar-wife to me.
O, I wad like to ken — to the beggar-wife says I —
Why lads are a’ to sell an’ lasses a’ to buy;
An’ naebody for dacency but barely twa or three
— It’s gey an’ easy spierin’, says the beggar-wife to me.
O, I wad like to ken — to the beggar-wife says I —
Gin death’s as shüre to men as killin’ is to kye,
Why God has filled the yearth sae fu’ o’ tasty things to pree.
— It’s gey an’ easy spierin’, says the beggar-wife to me.
O, I wad like to ken — to the beggar wife says I —
The reason o’ the cause an’ the wherefore o’ the why,
Wi’ mony anither riddle brings the tear into my e’e.
— It’s gey an’ easy spierin’, says the beggar-wife to me.
THE BLAST — 1875
It’s rainin’. Weet’s the gairden sod,
Weet the lang roads whaur gangrels plod —
A maist unceevil thing o’ God
In mid July —
If ye’ll just curse the sneckdraw, dod!
An’ sae wull I!
He’s a braw place in Heev’n, ye ken,
An’ lea’s us puir, forjaskit men
Clamjamfried in the but and ben
He ca’s the earth —
A wee bit inconvenient den
No muckle worth;
An’ whiles, at orra times, keeks out,
Sees what puir mankind are about;
An’ if He can, I’ve little doubt,
Upsets their plans;
He hates a’ mankind, brainch and root,
An’ a’ that’s man’s.
An’ whiles, whan they tak heart again,
An’ life i’ the sun looks braw an’ plain,
Doun comes a jaw o’ droukin’ rain
Upon their honours —
God sends a spate outower the plain,
Or mebbe thun’ers.
Lord safe us, life’s an unco thing!
Simmer an’ Winter, Yule an’ Spring,
The damned, dour-heartit seasons bring
A feck o’ trouble.
I wadnae try’t to be a king —
No, nor for double.
But since we’re in it, willy-nilly,
We maun be watchfü’, wise an’ skilly,
An’ no mind ony ither billy,
Lassie nor God.
But drink — that’s my best counsel till ‘e:
Sae tak the nod.
THE COUNTERBLAST — 1886
My bonny man, the warld, it’s true,
Was made for neither me nor you;
It’s just a place to warstle through,
As job confessed o’t;
And aye the best that we’ll can do
Is mak the best o’t.
There’s rowth o’ wrang, I’m free to say:
The simmer brunt, the winter blae,
The face of earth a’ fyled wi’ clay
An’ dour wi’ chuckies,
An’ life a rough an’ land’art play
For country buckies.
An’ food’s anither name for clart;
An’ beasts an’ brambles bite an’ scart;
An’ what would WE be like, my heart!
If bared o’ claethin’?
— Aweel, I cannae mend your cart:
It’s that or naethin’.
A feck o’ folk frae first to last
Have through this queer experience passed;
Twa-three, I ken, just damn an’ blast
The hale transaction;
But twa-three ithers, east an’ wast,
Fand satisfaction,
Whaur braid the briery muirs expand,
A waefü’ an’ a weary land,
The bumblebees, a gowden band,
Are blithely hingin’;
An’ there the canty wanderer fand
The laverock singin’.
Trout in the burn grow great as herr’n,
The simple sheep can find their fair’n’;
The wind blaws clean about the cairn
Wi’ caller air;
The muircock an’ the barefit bairn
Are happy there.
Sic-like the howes o’ life to some:
Green loans whaur they ne’er fash their thumb.
But mark the muckle winds that come
Soopin’ an’ cool,
Or hear the powrin’ burnie drum
In the shilfa’s pool.
The evil wi’ the guid they tak;
They ca’ a gray thing gray, no black;
To a steigh brae, a stubborn back
Addressin’ daily;
An’ up the rude, unbieldy track
O’ life, gang gaily.
What you would like’s a palace ha’,
Or Sinday parlour dink an’ braw
Wi’ a’ things ordered in a raw
By denty leddies.
Weel, than, ye cannae hae’t: that’s a’
That to be said is.
An’ since at life ye’ve taen the grue,
An’ winnae blithely hirsle through,
Ye’ve fund the very thing to do —
That’s to drink speerit;
An’ shüne we’ll hear the last o’ you —
An’ blithe to hear it!
The shoon ye coft, the life ye lead,
Ithers will heir when aince ye’re deid;
They’ll heir your tasteless bite o’ breid,
An’ find it sappy;
They’ll to your dulefü’ house succeed,
An’ there be happy.
As whan a glum an’ fractious wean
Has sat an’ sullened by his lane
Till, wi’ a rowstin’ skelp, he’s taen
An’ shoo’d to bed —
The ither bairns a’ fa’ to play’n’,
As gleg’s a gled.
THE COUNTERBLAST IRONICAL
It’s strange that God should fash to frame
The yearth and lift sae hie,
An’ clean forget to explain the same
To a gentleman like me.
They gutsy, donnered ither folk,
Their weird they weel may dree;
But why present a pig in a poke
To a gentleman like me?
They ither folk their parritch eat
An’ sup their sugared tea;
But the mind is no to be wyled wi’ meat
Wi’ a gentleman like me.
They ither folk, they court their joes
At gloamin’ on the lea;
But they’re made of a commoner clay, I suppose,
Than a gentleman like me.
They ither folk, for richt or wrang,
They suffer, bleed, or dee;
But a’ thir things are an emp’y sang
To a gentleman like me.
It’s a different thing that I demand,
Tho’ humble as can be —
A statement fair in my Maker’s hand
To a gentleman like me:
A clear account writ fair an’ broad,
An’ a plain apologie;
Or the deevil a ceevil word to God
From a gentleman like me.
THEIR LAUREATE TO AN ACADEMY CLASS DINNER CLUB
Dear Thamson class, whaure’er I gang
It aye comes ower me wi’ a spang:
“Lordsake! they Thamson lads — (deil hang
Or else Lord mend them!) —
An’ that wanchancy annual sang
I ne’er can send them!”
Straucht, at the name, a trusty tyke,
My conscience girrs ahint the dyke;
Straucht on my hinderlands I fyke
To find a rhyme t’ ye;
Pleased — although mebbe no pleased-like —
To gie my time t’ye.
“Weel,” an’ says you, wi’ heavin’ breist,
“Sae far, sae guid, but what’s the neist?
Yearly we gaither to the feast,
A’ hopefü’ men —
Yearly we skelloch ‘Hang the beast —
Nae sang again!’”
My lads, an’ what am I to say?
Ye shürely ken the Muse’s way:
Yestreen, as gleg’s a tyke — the day,
Thrawn like a cuddy:
Her conduc’, that to her’s a play,
Deith to a body.
Aft whan I sat an’ made my mane,
Aft whan I laboured burd-alane
Fishin’ for rhymes an’ findin’ nane,
Or nane were fit for ye —
Ye judged me cauld’s a chucky stane —
No car’n’ a bit for ye!
But saw ye ne’er some pingein’ bairn
As weak as a pitaty-par’n’ —
Less üsed wi’ guidin’ horse-shoe airn
Than steerin’ crowdie —
Packed aff his lane, by moss an’ cairn,
To ca’ the howdie.
Wae’s me, for the puir callant than!
He wambles like a poke o’ bran,
An’ the lowse rein, as hard’s he can,
Pu’s, trem’lin’ handit;
Till, blaff! upon his hinderlan’
Behauld him landit.
Sic-like — I awn the weary fac’ —
Whan on my muse the gate I tak,
An’ see her gleed e’e raxin’ back
To keek ahint her; —
To me, the brig o’ Heev’n gangs black
As blackest winter.
“Lordsake! we’re aff,” thinks I, “but whaur?
On what abhorred an’ whinny scaur,
Or whammled in what sea o’ glaur,
Will she desert me?
An’ will she just disgrace? or waur —
Will she no hurt me?”
Kittle the quaere! But at least
The day I’ve backed the fashious beast,
While she, wi’ mony a spang an’ reist,
Flang heels ower bonnet;
An’ a’ triumphant — for your feast,
Hae! there’s your sonnet!
EMBRO HIE KIRK
The Lord Himsel’ in former days
Waled out the proper tünes for praise
An’ named the proper kind o’ claes
For folk to preach in:
Preceese and in the chief o’ ways
Important teachin’.
He ordered a’ things late and air’;
He ordered folk to stand at prayer,
(Although I cannae just mind where
He gave the warnin’,)
An’ pit pomatum on their hair
Complete Works of Robert Louis Stevenson Page 422