It's no tae the schule ye'll win?'
Doon tae the shore at the fit o' the toon
Tae bide till the brigs come in
Awa' noo wi' ye and turn ye hame,
Ye'll no hae the time tae bide;
It's twa lang months or the brigs come back
On the lift o' a risin' tide.
I'll sit me doon at the water's mau'
Till there's niver a blink o' licht,
For my feyther bad' me tae tryst wi' him
In the dairkness o' yesternicht.
"Rise ye an' rin tae the shore", says he,
"At the cheep o' the waukin' bird,
And I'll bring ye a tale o' a foreign land
The like that ye niver heard."
Oh, haud yer havers, ye feckless wean,
It was but a dream ye saw,
For he's far, far north wi' the Baltic men
I' the hurl o' the Baltic snaw;
And what did he ca' yon foreign land?'
He tell'tna its name tae me,
But I doot it's no by the Baltic shore,
For he said there was nae mair sea.
VIOLET JACOB 1863 - 1946
2 comments:
Oof. That last lines comes with an unexpected whallop. Like Chesterton (e.g. The Rolling English Road, or Palm Sunday) but more so (at least for this Englishman) because of the Lallans.
Thanks.
AM
I turned it up in an anthology of 20th-Century Scots verse; it's not one I'd seen before. The picture is from my father's village in the north-east of Scotland, from between the wars, I'd guess.
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