[lit-ideas] Re: Plague-cancelling technique

on 1/29/05 9:48 AM, Mirembe Nantongo at nantongo@xxxxxxxxx wrote:

made me think of that bizarre Burns song about rushes,
> which has always generated a single pressing question in my mind, i.e.:
> What's with the O, dude?


It' not unique, O.  Leafing through my Burns, wondering what to read
tonight, I came across this gem, O.

My Father Was a Farmer

Tune--The Weaver and his Shuttle, O.

My father was a farmer upon the Carrick border, O,
And carefully he bred me in decency and order, O;
He bade me act a manly part, though I had ne'er a farthing, O,
For without an honest manly heart no man was worth regarding, O.

Then out into the world my course I did determine, O;
Though to be rich was not my wish, yet to be great was charming, O:
My talents they were not the worst, nor yet my education, O;
Resolved was I, at least to try, to mend my situation, O


There follow seven more stanzas, O.

Even Burns had bad days.

I read Hugh MacDiarmid on McGonagall this week.  He concedes that Scotland
has had a good number of rotten poets.  He then quotes editors of an
anthology who took a side-swipe at Burns, "...it must be allowed that Burns
was a poet far above the average, a keen Freemason, a delightful
table-companion, and a father whose habit of christening daughters,
legitimate and otherwise, by the name Elizabeth, shows some appreciation of
official or Whig history."  MacDiarmid then comes back with, "Scottish
poetry is undoubtedly relatively poor in the particular kinds of effects
these anthologists are concerned with--largely because the poetic
pretentions of Scotland have never soared so high, or been therefore
susceptible of such falls, as those of England.  My countrymen cannot vie
with their Southern neighbours in the production of such gems as

He cancelled the ravaging plague
With the roll of his fat off the cliff

Hands up all those who didn't have to look up the fact that these lines were
written by George Meredith.

David Ritchie
Portland, Oregon

------------------------------------------------------------------
To change your Lit-Ideas settings (subscribe/unsub, vacation on/off,
digest on/off), visit www.andreas.com/faq-lit-ideas.html

Other related posts: