The poem that runs Burns Night. It is a mock-heroic address in the high style to a boiled sheep's pluck, and the joke works because Burns means every word of the last two stanzas: the ploughman fed on this is worth more than the "olio that wad staw a sow". Read it aloud with the knife in your hand and cut on "an cut you up wi ready slight".
Fair fa’ your honest, sonsie face,
Great chieftain o’ the pudding-race!
Aboon them a’ yet tak your place,
Painch, tripe, or thairm:
Weel are ye wordy o’a grace
As lang’s my arm.
The groaning trencher there ye fill,
Your hurdies like a distant hill,
Your pin was help to mend a mill
In time o’need,
While thro’ your pores the dews distil
Like amber bead.
His knife see rustic Labour dight,
An’ cut you up wi’ ready sleight,
Trenching your gushing entrails bright,
Like ony ditch;
And then, O what a glorious sight,
Warm-reekin’, rich!
Then, horn for horn, they stretch an’ strive:
Deil tak the hindmost! on they drive,
Till a’ their weel-swall’d kytes belyve
Are bent like drums;
Then auld Guidman, maist like to rive,
Bethankit! hums.
Is there that owre his French ragout
Or olio that wad staw a sow,
Or fricassee wad make her spew
Wi’ perfect sconner,
Looks down wi’ sneering, scornfu’ view
On sic a dinner?
Poor devil! see him owre his trash,
As feckles as wither’d rash,
His spindle shank, a guid whip-lash;
His nieve a nit;
Thro’ blody flood or field to dash,
O how unfit!
But mark the Rustic, haggis-fed,
The trembling earth resounds his tread.
Clap in his walie nieve a blade,
He’ll mak it whissle;
An’ legs an’ arms, an’ hands will sned,
Like taps o’ trissle.
Ye Pow’rs, wha mak mankind your care,
And dish them out their bill o’ fare,
Auld Scotland wants nae skinking ware
That jaups in luggies;
But, if ye wish her gratefu’ prayer
Gie her a haggis!
The Scots in this one
41 words, from the glossary Burns's own editions carried. On a wide screen these also sit in the margin beside the line they belong to; on a small one, tap any dotted word.
- fa'
- fall
- sonsie
- cheerful, plump
- o'
- of
- aboon
- above up
- a'
- all
- tak
- take
- painch
- the paunch
- thairm
- small guts; catgut (a fiddle-string)
- weel
- well
- wordy
- worthy
- hurdies
- the loins, the crupper (R. B.) (i. e., the buttocks)
- dight
- to wipe
- an'
- and
- wi'
- with
- horn
- a horn spoon; a comb of horn
- deil
- devil
- till
- to, until
- kytes
- bellies
- belyve
- by and by
- auld
- old
- maist
- almost
- rive
- to split, to tear, to tug, to burst
- bethankit
- grace after meat
- owre
- over, too
- wad
- would
- staw
- stole
- sconner
- disgust
- sic
- such
- rash
- a rush
- guid
- gude, good
- nieve
- the fist
- nit
- a nut
- walie
- wawlie, choice, ample, large
- mak
- make
- whissle
- whistle
- sned
- to lop, to prune
- wha
- who
- skinking
- watery
- ware
- goods, stuff
- gie
- to give
- haggis
- a special Scots pudding, made of sheep’s lungs, liver and