Lines On The North Of Scotland

Lines on the North of Scotland, delivered in Embro nearly a
quarter of a century ago:

Scotsmen have wandered far and wide,
From Moray Frith to Frith of Clyde;
McDonald, from his sea girt isle,
And Campbell from his broad Argyle-

But chiefly here you have come forth
From those countries of the north;
Some oft have trod Dunrobins's Halls,
And gazed upon its stately walls.

Here to-night in this array
Is Murray, McKenzie and McKay;
And there doth around us stand
The Munroe, Ross and Sutherland.

Your young men have high honour earned;
In all of the professions learned;

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poem by James McIntyre
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But I fear, my lot being cast in Scotland, that beauty would not be content.

quote by Anne Boyd
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Bobbie

Gin you're gangin' doon the city
Come next Sabbath afternoon,
An' you'll catch a glimpse o' Tartan
An' you'll hear a skirlin' tune;
An' you'll see a crowd o' laddies
Lookin' verra dour an' staid,
Wi' just here an' there a Cairngorn,
An' a wee tiny speck o' plaid;
Dinna think from their expression
They are on some mission sad
For their thoughts are back wi' Bobbie,
Wi' the braw, brave ploughman lad.

Once again they'll see him treadin'
Dreary-eyed behind the plough,
With his thoughts amonsgt the angels
And a brave light on his brow.
Once again they'll see him sparking
By the burnside and the glen,
Wi' another sort of angel

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poem by Clarence Michael James Stanislaus Dennis
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A Ballad of Aberdeen (Mild Green Vipers)

The mild green vipers of Aberdeen
Are often heard but seldom seen.
They hiss like a kettle when it boils
And crush small rodents in their coils,

They slither through the summer grasses
Invisible to whoever passes,
Few mortal folk have ever seen
The mild green vipers of Aberdeen,

But many hear their wicked hiss
And shake in terror because of this.
You'll never guess where they have been
Unless you ask the Scottish Queen.

She'll smile and tell you very slowly
In the name of all that is Pure and Holy
That nothing lives that's so obscene
As the mild green vipers of Aberdeen.

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poem by John Thorkild Ellison
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Scot Free

The greatest financial swindle in history
and the mongrels walk away, scot free
bankers and politicians
guilty, in the first degree

poem by John Mcleish
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Scotland's Story

Michael McGrory from west Donegal
You came to Glasgow with nothing at all
You fought the landlord then the Afrika Korps
When you came to Glasgow with nothing at all
Abraham Caplan from Vilnius you came
You were heading for New York, but Leith's where you've stayed
You built a great business which benefits all
Since you came to this land with nothing at all
In Scotland's story I read that they came
The Gael and the Pict, the Angle and Dane
But so did the Irishman, Jew and Ukraine
They're all Scotland's story and they're all worth the same
Joseph D'Angelo dreams of the days
When Italian kids in the Grassmarket played
We burned out his shop when the boys went to war
But auld Joe's a big man and he forgave all
In Scotland's story I'm told that they came
The Gael and the Pict, the Angle and Dane
But where's all the Chinese and Indian names?
They're in my land's story and they're all worth the same

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song performed by Proclaimers
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Candy Store Dream

Need I pull
The escape chord?
This flying Scotsman travels too fast
Me thinks
Whilst my dog lays dying
My castle lays crumbling
My heart lays in carnage
No wonder
I sink

Last night I escaped to a world with a girl
Theatrical elegance surrounded her form
As she leant forward
Framed eyes widened (back arched)
And held
One finger
Vertically over silken pursed lips

And quietly hushed me
Ushering

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poem by Karen Sinclair
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I tell you, St. Paddy, God-wot
An Irishman born he was not.
To be sure fair of face
He hailed from a place
Where he started off life as a Scot!

limerick by Margaret Kollmer
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I've played in pipe bands in Scotland, and I've always played guitars and drums and stuff.

quote by Ewan McGregor
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Scots of the Riverina

The boy cleared out to the city from his home at harvest time --
They were Scots of the Riverina, and to run from home was a crime.
The old man burned his letters, the first and last he burned,
And he scratched his name from the Bible when the old wife's back was turned.

A year went past and another. There were calls from the firing-line;
They heard the boy had enlisted, but the old man made no sign.
His name must never be mentioned on the farm by Gundagai --
They were Scots of the Riverina with ever the kirk hard by.

The boy came home on his "final", and the township's bonfire burned.
His mother's arms were about him; but the old man's back was turned.
The daughters begged for pardon till the old man raised his hand --
A Scot of the Riverina who was hard to understand.

The boy was killed in Flanders, where the best and bravest die.
There were tears at the Grahame homestead and grief in Gundagai;
But the old man ploughed at daybreak and the old man ploughed till the mirk --
There were furrows of pain in the orchard while his housefolk went to the kirk.

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poem by Henry Lawson
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The Evangelical party in the Church of Scotland will lay all flat if they be not prevented.

quote by Edward Irving
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Staff Nurse:Old Style

The greater masters of the commonplace,
REMBRANDT and good SIR WALTER-only these
Could paint her all to you: experienced ease
And antique liveliness and ponderous grace;
The sweet old roses of her sunken face;
The depth and malice of her sly, grey eyes;
The broad Scots tongue that flatters, scolds, defies;
The thick Scots wit that fells you like a mace.
These thirty years has she been nursing here,
Some of them under SYME , her hero still.
Much is she worth, and even more is made of her.
Patients and students hold her very dear.
The doctors love her, tease her, use her skill.
They say 'The Chief' himself is half-afraid of her.

poem by William Ernest Henley
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Warwick: Henry now lives in Scotland at his ease,
Where having nothing, nothing can he lose.

line from the play King Henry VI, Act III, Scene 3, script by William Shakespeare (1590)
Added by Dan Costinaş
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A sympathetic Scot summed it all up very neatly in the remark, "You should make a point of trying every experience once, excepting incest and folk dancing."

Arnold Bax in Farewell my Youth (1943)
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The Heart Of The Bruce

It was upon an April morn,
While yet the frost lay hoar,
We heard Lord James's bugle-horn
Sound by the rocky shore.

Then down we went, a hundred knights,
All in our dark array,
And flung our armour in the ships
That rode within the bay.

We spoke not as the shore grew less,
But gazed in silence back,
Where the long billows swept away
The foam behind our track.

And aye the purple hues decay'd
Upon the fading hill,
And but one heart in all that ship
Was tranquil, cold, and still.

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poem by William Edmondstoune Aytoun
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There's a lot of fantasy about what Scotland is, and the shortbread tins and that sort of thing.

quote by Sean Connery
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Oats. A grain, which in England is generally given to horses, but in Scotland supports the people.

Samuel Johnson in A Dictionary of the English Language
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This is not to say that the Scots are not fine people, but they were all sort of... well, my grandfather was a minister and sort of Protestant, and this was rather depressing to me.

quote by Alan Hovhaness
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I was born in London, and went to school in Scotland - I used to be dead tired when I got home at night.

quote by Norman Wisdom
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Sad Song

Staring at my picture book
She looks like mary, queen of scots
She seemed very regal to me
Just goes to show how wrong you can be
Im gonna stop wastin my time
Somebody else would have broken both of her arms
Sad song, sad song
Sad song, sad song
My castle, kids and home
I thought she was mary, queen of scots
I tried so very hard
Shows just how wrong you can be
Im gonna stop wasting time
Somebody else would have broken both of her arms
Sad song, sad song
Sad song, sad song
Sad song, sad song
Sad song, sad song
Sad song, sad song
Sad song, sad song

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song performed by Lou Reed
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