![\"Deb's](\"https:\/\/travelingboy.com\/travel\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/poetrybreak.gif\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
By Robert Burns, 1759 – 1796<\/em><\/p>\n Upon that night, when fairies light Among the bonny winding banks, The lasses feat, and cleanly neat, Then, first and foremost, through the kail, Then, staught or crooked, yird or nane, The lasses staw frae \u2018mang them a\u2019 The auld guidwife\u2019s well-hoordit nits, Jean slips in twa wi\u2019 tentie ee; Poor Willie, wi\u2019 his bow-kail runt, Nell had the fause-house in her min\u2019, But Merran sat behint their backs, And aye she win\u2019t, and aye she swat, Wee Jennie to her grannie says, \u201cYe little skelpie-limmer\u2019s face! \u201cAe hairst afore the Sherramoor, \u2014 \u201cOur stibble-rig was Rab M\u2019Graen, Then up gat fechtin\u2019 Jamie Fleck, He marches through amang the stacks, He whistled up Lord Lennox\u2019 march He roar\u2019d a horrid murder-shout, Meg fain wad to the barn hae gaen, She turns the key wi cannie thraw, They hoy\u2019t out Will wi\u2019 sair advice; A wanton widow Leezie was, Whyles owre a linn the burnie plays, Among the brackens, on the brae, In order, on the clean hearth-stane, And every time great care is ta\u2019en\u2019, Wi\u2019 merry sangs, and friendly cracks, Hallowe\u2019en By Robert Burns, 1759 – 1796 Upon that night, when fairies light On Cassilis Downans dance, Or owre the lays, in splendid blaze, On sprightly coursers prance; Or for Colean the route is ta\u2019en, Beneath the moon\u2019s pale beams; There, up the cove, to stray and rove, Among the rocks and streams To sport …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":278,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57],"tags":[468,466,465,467],"class_list":["post-2846","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-travel-tips","tag-halloween","tag-poems","tag-poetry","tag-robert-burns"],"yoast_head":"\n
\nOn Cassilis Downans dance,
\nOr owre the lays, in splendid blaze,
\nOn sprightly coursers prance;
\nOr for Colean the route is ta\u2019en,
\nBeneath the moon\u2019s pale beams;
\nThere, up the cove, to stray and rove,
\nAmong the rocks and streams
\nTo sport that night.<\/p>\n
\nWhere Doon rins, wimplin\u2019 clear,
\nWhere Bruce ance ruled the martial ranks,
\nAnd shook his Carrick spear,
\nSome merry, friendly, country-folks,
\nTogether did convene,
\nTo burn their nits, and pou their stocks,
\nAnd haud their Halloween
\nFu\u2019 blithe that night.<\/p>\n
\nMair braw than when they\u2019re fine;
\nTheir faces blithe, fu\u2019 sweetly kythe,
\nHearts leal, and warm, and kin\u2019;
\nThe lads sae trig, wi\u2019 wooer-babs,
\nWeel knotted on their garten,
\nSome unco blate, and some wi\u2019 gabs,
\nGar lasses\u2019 hearts gang startin\u2019
\nWhiles fast at night.<\/p>\n
\nTheir stocks maun a\u2019 be sought ance;
\nThey steek their een, and graip and wale,
\nFor muckle anes and straught anes.
\nPoor hav\u2019rel Will fell aff the drift,
\nAnd wander\u2019d through the bow-kail,
\nAnd pou\u2019t, for want o\u2019 better shift,
\nA runt was like a sow-tail,
\nSae bow\u2019t that night.<\/p>\n
\nThey roar and cry a\u2019 throu\u2019ther;
\nThe very wee things, todlin\u2019, rin,
\nWi\u2019 stocks out owre their shouther;
\nAnd gif the custoc\u2019s sweet or sour.
\nWi\u2019 joctelegs they taste them;
\nSyne cozily, aboon the door,
\nWi cannie care, they\u2019ve placed them
\nTo lie that night.<\/p>\n
\nTo pou their stalks of corn:
\nBut Rab slips out, and jinks about,
\nBehint the muckle thorn:
\nHe grippet Nelly hard and fast;
\nLoud skirl\u2019d a\u2019 the lasses;
\nBut her tap-pickle maist was lost,
\nWhen kitlin\u2019 in the fause-house
\nWi\u2019 him that night.<\/p>\n
\nAre round and round divided,
\nAnd monie lads\u2019 and lasses\u2019 fates
\nAre there that night decided:
\nSome kindle coothie, side by side,
\nAnd burn thegither trimly;
\nSome start awa, wi\u2019 saucy pride,
\nAnd jump out-owre the chimlie
\nFu\u2019 high that night.<\/p>\n
\nWha \u2018twas she wadna tell;
\nBut this is Jock, and this is me,
\nShe says in to hersel:
\nHe bleezed owre her, and she owre him,
\nAs they wad never mair part;
\nTill, fuff! he started up the lum,
\nAnd Jean had e\u2019en a sair heart
\nTo see\u2019t that night.<\/p>\n
\nWas brunt wi\u2019 primsie Mallie;
\nAnd Mallie, nae doubt, took the drunt,
\nTo be compared to Willie;
\nMall\u2019s nit lap out wi\u2019 pridefu\u2019 fling,
\nAnd her ain fit it brunt it;
\nWhile Willie lap, and swore by jing,
\n\u2018Twas just the way he wanted
\nTo be that night.<\/p>\n
\nShe pits hersel and Rob in;
\nIn loving bleeze they sweetly join,
\nTill white in ase they\u2019re sobbin\u2019;
\nNell\u2019s heart was dancin\u2019 at the view,
\nShe whisper\u2019d Rob to leuk for\u2019t:
\nRob, stowlins, prie\u2019d her bonny mou\u2019,
\nFu\u2019 cozie in the neuk for\u2019t,
\nUnseen that night.<\/p>\n
\nHer thoughts on Andrew Bell;
\nShe lea\u2019es them gashin\u2019 at their cracks,
\nAnd slips out by hersel:
\nShe through the yard the nearest taks,
\nAnd to the kiln goes then,
\nAnd darklins graipit for the bauks,
\nAnd in the blue-clue throws then,
\nRight fear\u2019t that night.<\/p>\n
\nI wat she made nae jaukin\u2019,
\nTill something held within the pat,
\nGuid Lord! but she was quakin\u2019!
\nBut whether \u2018was the deil himsel,
\nOr whether \u2018twas a bauk-en\u2019,
\nOr whether it was Andrew Bell,
\nShe didna wait on talkin\u2019
\nTo spier that night.<\/p>\n
\n\u201cWill ye go wi\u2019 me, grannie?
\nI\u2019ll eat the apple at the glass
\nI gat frae Uncle Johnnie:”
\nShe fuff\u2019t her pipe wi\u2019 sic a lunt,
\nIn wrath she was sae vap\u2019rin\u2019,
\nShe notice\u2019t na, an aizle brunt
\nHer braw new worset apron
\nOut through that night.<\/p>\n
\nI daur you try sic sportin\u2019,
\nAs seek the foul thief ony place,
\nFor him to spae your fortune.
\nNae doubt but ye may get a sight!
\nGreat cause ye hae to fear it;
\nFor mony a ane has gotten a fright,
\nAnd lived and died deleeret
\nOn sic a night.<\/p>\n
\nI mind\u2019t as weel\u2019s yestreen,
\nI was a gilpey then, I\u2019m sure
\nI wasna past fifteen;
\nThe simmer had been cauld and wat,
\nAnd stuff was unco green;
\nAnd aye a rantin\u2019 kirn we gat,
\nAnd just on Halloween
\nIt fell that night.<\/p>\n
\nA clever sturdy fallow:
\nHis son gat Eppie Sim wi\u2019 wean,
\nThat lived in Achmacalla:
\nHe gat hemp-seed, I mind it weel,
\nAnd he made unco light o\u2019t;
\nBut mony a day was by himsel,
\nHe was sae sairly frighted
\nThat very night.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nAnd he swore by his conscience,
\nThat he could saw hemp-seed a peck;
\nFor it was a\u2019 but nonsense.
\nThe auld guidman raught down the pock,
\nAnd out a hanfu\u2019 gied him;
\nSyne bade him slip frae \u2018mang the folk,
\nSome time when nae ane see\u2019d him,
\nAnd try\u2019t that night.<\/p>\n
\nThough he was something sturtin;
\nThe graip he for a harrow taks.
\nAnd haurls it at his curpin;
\nAnd every now and then he says,
\n\u201cHemp-seed, I saw thee,
\nAnd her that is to be my lass,
\nCome after me, and draw thee
\nAs fast this night.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nTo keep his courage cheery;
\nAlthough his hair began to arch,
\nHe was say fley\u2019d and eerie:
\nTill presently he hears a squeak,
\nAnd then a grane and gruntle;
\nHe by his shouther gae a keek,
\nAnd tumbled wi\u2019 a wintle
\nOut-owre that night.<\/p>\n
\nIn dreadfu\u2019 desperation!
\nAnd young and auld came runnin\u2019 out
\nTo hear the sad narration;
\nHe swore \u2018twas hilchin Jean M\u2019Craw,
\nOr crouchie Merran Humphie,
\nTill, stop! she trotted through them
\nAnd wha was it but grumphie
\nAsteer that night!<\/p>\n
\nTo win three wechts o\u2019 naething;
\nBut for to meet the deil her lane,
\nShe pat but little faith in:
\nShe gies the herd a pickle nits,
\nAnd two red-cheekit apples,
\nTo watch, while for the barn she sets,
\nIn hopes to see Tam Kipples
\nThat very nicht.<\/p>\n
\nAnd owre the threshold ventures;
\nBut first on Sawnie gies a ca\u2019
\nSyne bauldly in she enters:
\nA ratton rattled up the wa\u2019,
\nAnd she cried, Lord, preserve her!
\nAnd ran through midden-hole and a\u2019,
\nAnd pray\u2019d wi\u2019 zeal and fervour,
\nFu\u2019 fast that night;<\/p>\n
\nThey hecht him some fine braw ane;
\nIt chanced the stack he faddom\u2019d thrice
\nWas timmer-propt for thrawin\u2019;
\nHe taks a swirlie, auld moss-oak,
\nFor some black grousome carlin;
\nAnd loot a winze, and drew a stroke,
\nTill skin in blypes cam haurlin\u2019
\nAff\u2019s nieves that night.<\/p>\n
\nAs canty as a kittlin;
\nBut, och! that night amang the shaws,
\nShe got a fearfu\u2019 settlin\u2019!
\nShe through the whins, and by the cairn,
\nAnd owre the hill gaed scrievin,
\nWhare three lairds\u2019 lands met at a burn
\nTo dip her left sark-sleeve in,
\nWas bent that night.<\/p>\n
\nAs through the glen it wimpl\u2019t;
\nWhyles round a rocky scaur it strays;
\nWhyles in a wiel it dimpl\u2019t;
\nWhyles glitter\u2019d to the nightly rays,
\nWi\u2019 bickering, dancing dazzle;
\nWhyles cookit underneath the braes,
\nBelow the spreading hazel,
\nUnseen that night.<\/p>\n
\nBetween her and the moon,
\nThe deil, or else an outler quey,
\nGat up and gae a croon:
\nPoor Leezie\u2019s heart maist lap the hool!
\nNear lav\u2019rock-height she jumpit;
\nbut mist a fit, and in the pool
\nOut-owre the lugs she plumpit,
\nWi\u2019 a plunge that night.<\/p>\n
\nThe luggies three are ranged,<\/p>\n
\nTo see them duly changed:
\nAuld Uncle John, wha wedlock joys
\nSin\u2019 Mar\u2019s year did desire,
\nBecause he gat the toom dish thrice,
\nHe heaved them on the fire
\nIn wrath that night.<\/p>\n
\nI wat they didna weary;
\nAnd unco tales, and funny jokes,
\nTheir sports were cheap and cheery;
\nTill butter\u2019d so\u2019ns, wi\u2019 fragrant lunt,
\nSet a\u2019 their gabs a-steerin\u2019;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"