fireplace / blazing 40 Wi' reaming swats,0 that drank divinely; foaming new ale And at his elbow, Souter0 Johnny, shoemaker His ancient, trusty, drouthy crony; Tam lo'ed him like a vera brither; They had been fou for weeks thegither. 45 The night drave on wi' sangs and clatter; And ay the ale was growing better: The landlady and Tam grew gracious, Wi' favours secret, sweet, and precious: The Souter tauld his queerest stories; 50 The landlord's laugh was ready chorus: The storm without might rair? and rustle, Tam did na mind the storm a whistle. Care, mad to see a man sae happy, E'en drown'd himsel amang the nappy: 55 As bees flee hame wi' lades o' treasure, The minutes wing'd their way wi' pleasure: Kings may be blest, but Tam was glorious, O'er a' the ills o' life victorious! But pleasures are like poppies spread, 60 You seize the flower, its bloom is shed; Or like the snow falls in the river, A moment white?then melts for ever; Or like the borealis race, That flit ere you can point their place; 65 Or like the rainbow's lovely form Evanishing amid the storm.? Nae man can tether time or tide; The hour approaches Tam maun? ride; must That hour, o' night's black arch the key-stane, 70 That dreary hour, he mounts his beast in; And sic a night he taks the road in, As ne'er poor sinner was abroad in.
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TAM O' SHANTER: A TALE / 141
The wind blew as 'twad blawn its last; The rattling showers rose on the blast; The speedy gleams the darkness swallow'd; Loud, deep, and lang, the thunder bellow'd: That night, a child might understand, The Deil had business on his hand.
Weel mounted on his gray mare, Meg, A better never lifted leg,4 Tam skelpit0 on thro' dub? and mire, slapped / puddle Despising wind, and rain, and fire; Whiles holding fast his gude blue bonnet; Whiles crooning o'er some auld Scots sonnet; Whiles glowring0 round wi' prudent cares, staring Lest bogles0 catch him unawares. Kirk- Alloway was drawing nigh, Whare ghaists0 and houlets0 nightly cry.? ghosts / owls
By this time he was cross the ford, Whare in the snaw, the chapman smoor'd;5 And past the birks? and meilde stane,? birches / big stone Whare drunken Charlie brak's neck-bane; And thro' the whins, and by the cairn,6 Whare hunters fand the murder'd bairn; And near the thorn, aboon the well, Where Mungo's mither hang'd hersel.? Before him Doon pours all his floods; The doubling storm roars thro' the woods; The lightnings flash from pole to pole; Near and more near the thunders roll: When, glimmering thro' the groaning trees, Kirk-Alloway seemed in a bleeze;0 blaze Thro' ilka bore? the beams were glancing; hole And loud resounded mirth and dancing.?
Inspiring bold John Barleycorn! What dangers thou canst make us scorn! Wi' tippeny,7 we fear nae evil; Wi' usquabae,? we'll face the devil!? whisky The swats sae ream'd in Tammie's noddle, Fair play, he car'd na deils a boddle.8 But Maggie stood right sair astonish'd, Till, by the heel and hand admonish'd, She ventured forward on the light; And, vow! Tam saw an unco' sight! strange Warlocks and witches in a dance; Nae cotillion brent0 new frae France, brand
4. Compare this 'lifted leg' to Willie's use of the 6. Stones heaped up as a memorial. 'Whins': term about himself in line 47 of 'Holy Willie's furze (an evergreen shrub). Prayer.' Tarn's horse, Meg (also called Maggie), 7. Twopenny (usually of weak beer). occasions the poem's bawdiest wordplay. 8. I.e., he didn't care a farthing about devils (a 5. The peddler smothered. 'boddle' is a very small copper coin).
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142 / ROBERT BURNS
But hornpipes, jigs, strathspeys,9 and reels, Put life and mettle in their heels. A winnock-bunker0 in the east, window seat There sat auld Nick, in shape o' beast; A touzie tyke,? black, grim, and large, shaggy dog To gie them music was his charge: He screw'd the pipes and gart? them skirl,0 made / screech Till roof and rafters a' did dirl.?? rattle Coffins stood round, like open presses, That shaw'd the dead in their last dresses; And by some devilish cantraip0 slight charm, trick Each in its cauld hand held a light.? By which heroic Tam was able To note upon the haly? table, holy A murderer's banes in gibbet airns;? irons Twa span-lang,1 wee, unchristened bairns; A thief, new-cutted frae a rape,0 rope Wi' his last gasp his gab? did gape; mouth Five tomahawks, wi' blude red- rusted; Five scymitars, wi' murder crusted; A garter, which a babe had strangled; A knife, a father's throat had mangled, Whom his ain son o' life bereft, The grey hairs yet stack0 to the heft; stuck Wi' mair o' horrible and awefu', Which even to name wad be unlawfu'.
As Tammie glowr'd, amaz'd, and curious, The mirth and fun grew fast and furious: The piper loud and louder blew; The dancers quick and quicker flew; They reel'd, they set, they cross'd, they cleekit,0 joined hands Till ilka carlin0 swat and reekit, old woman And coost her duddies to the wark,2 And linket0 at it in her sark!3 tripped lightly
Now, Tam, O Tam! had thae been queans,0 girls A' plump and strapping in their teens, Their sarks, instead o' creeshie flannen,0 greasy flannel Been snaw-white seventeen hunder linnen!4 Thir? breeks o' mine, my only pair, these That ance were plush, o' gude blue hair, I wad hae gi'en them off my hurdies,? buttocks For ae blink o' the bonie burdies!0 bonny (pretty) girls
But wither'd beldams,0 auld and droll, hags
160 Rigwoodie0 hags wad spean0 a foal, bony / wean Lowping0 and flinging on a crummock,0 leaping / staff I wonder didna turn thy stomach.
9. Slow Highland dance. 3. Shirt (underclothes). 1. Two spans long (a span is the distance from 4. Very fine linen, woven on a loom with seven- outstretched thumb to little finger). teen hundred strips. 2. Cast off her clothes for the work.
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TAM O' SHANTER:
But Tam kend what was what fu' brawlie,0 There was ae winsome wench and wawlie0
165 That night enlisted in the core,' (Lang after kend on Carrick shore; For mony a beast to dead she shot, And perish'd mony a bony boat, And shook baith meikle corn and bear,0
170 And kept the country-side in fear:) Her cutty0 sark, o' Paisley harn,0 That while a lassie she had worn, In longitude tho' sorely scanty, It was her best, and she was vauntie.0?
175 Ah! little kend thy reverend grannie, That sark she coft? for her wee Nannie, Wi' twa pund Scots ('twas a' her riches), Wad ever grac'd a dance of witches!
But here my Muse her wing maun cour;?
180 Sic flights are far beyond her pow'r; To sing how Nannie lap and flang, (A souple jade? she was, and Strang), And how Tam stood, like ane bewitch'd, And thought his very een? enrich'd;
185 Even Satan glowr'd, and fidg'd fu' fain,5 And hotch'd0 and blew wi' might and main: Till first ae caper,
