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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

The Lord Himsel’ in former days Waled out the proper tunes 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 […]

In a letter from Mr. Thomson to Mr. Johnstone. In mony a foreign pairt I’ve been, An’ mony an unco ferlie seen, Since, Mr. Johnstone, you and I Last walkit upon Cocklerye. Wi’ gleg, observant een, I pass’t By sea an’ land, through East an’ Wast, And still in ilka age an’ station Saw naething […]

Late in the nicht in bed I lay, The winds were at their weary play, An’ tirlin’ wa’s an’ skirlin’ wae Through Heev’n they battered; – On-ding o’ hail, on-blaff o’ spray, The tempest blattered. The masoned house it dinled through; It dung the ship, it cowped the coo’. The rankit aiks it overthrew, Had […]

Of a’ the ills that flesh can fear, The loss o’ frien’s, the lack o’ gear, A yowlin’ tyke, a glandered mear, A lassie’s nonsense – There’s just ae thing I cannae bear, An’ that’s my conscience. Whan day (an’ a’ excuse) has gane, An’ wark is dune, and duty’s plain, An’ to my charmer […]

(Whan the dear doctor, dear to a’, Was still amang us here belaw, I set my pipes his praise to blaw Wi’ a’ my speerit; But noo, Dear Doctor! he’s awa’, An’ ne’er can hear it.) By Lyne and Tyne, by Thames and Tees, By a’ the various river-Dee’s, In Mars and Manors ‘yont the […]

It’s an owercome sooth for age an’ youth And it brooks wi’ nae denial, That the dearest friends are the auldest friends And the young are just on trial. There’s a rival bauld wi’ young an’ auld And it’s him that has bereft me; For the surest friends are the auldest friends And the maist […]

By the time this paper appears, I shall have been talking for twelve months;[1] and it is thought I should take my leave in a formal and seasonable manner. Valedictory eloquence is rare, and death-bed sayings have not often hit the mark of the occasion. Charles Second, wit and sceptic, a man whose life had […]

In winter I get up at night And dress by yellow candle-light. In summer quite the other way, I have to go to bed by day. I have to go to bed and see The birds still hopping on the tree, Or hear the grown-up people’s feet Still going past me in the street. And […]

It is very nice to think The world is full of meat and drink, With little children saying grace In every Christian kind of place.

When I was down beside the sea A wooden spade they gave to me To dig the sandy shore. My holes were empty like a cup. In every hole the sea came up, Till it could come no more.

All night long and every night, When my mama puts out the light, I see the people marching by, As plain as day before my eye. Armies and emperor and kings, All carrying different kinds of things, And marching in so grand a way, You never saw the like by day. So fine a show […]

A child should always say what’s true And speak when he is spoken to, And behave mannerly at table; At least as far as he is able.

Three of us afloat in the meadow by the swing, Three of us abroad in the basket on the lea. Winds are in the air, they are blowing in the spring, And waves are on the meadow like the waves there are at sea. Where shall we adventure, to-day that we’re afloat, Wary of the […]

Up into the cherry tree Who should climb but little me? I held the trunk with both my hands And looked abroad in foreign lands. I saw the next door garden lie, Adorned with flowers, before my eye, And many pleasant places more That I had never seen before. I saw the dimpling river pass […]

Whenever the moon and stars are set, Whenever the wind is high, All night long in the dark and wet, A man goes riding by. Late in the night when the fires are out, Why does he gallop and gallop about? Whenever the trees are crying aloud, And ships are tossed at sea, By, on […]

I should like to rise and go Where the golden apples grow;– Where below another sky Parrot islands anchored lie, And, watched by cockatoos and goats, Lonely Crusoes building boats;– Where in sunshine reaching out Eastern cities, miles about, Are with mosque and minaret Among sandy gardens set, And the rich goods from near and […]