Ode to Rabbie
J.W.Sandison
Fa’an Burness left the bonnie Mearns
And heided south wi wife and bairns
He little thocht his next son Rabbie
Wid grow intae a rhymer laddie
That wid, tho short his ain life span
Leave such a heritage tae man
Life wisna easy nane wid doubt it
As plooman Rab jist wisna suited
At Oliphant and Lochlee he vrocht
On fairm leases his faither bocht
Puir bare grun wis their damnation
But aye he strived for education
Fairmin’ alane on weet Mossgiel
Gaur’d him host and made him feel-
That ither ploys wid suit him better
Instead o ploo’in jist tae be a debtor
So wi’ a’ he’d writ allow his airm
He said farewell to ploo and fairm
He tried his han’ at working jute
The mill burned doon he wis pit oot
He thocht ae day he’d be a sodjer
But shot the thocht an’ came a gauger
In Jamaica he had a job on offer
When providence filled his coffer
A book was published- First edition
The rhymers words left to this nation
But Rab oh Rab the kirks oppression
Frowned sairly on yir proliferation
The holy Willies ilk’ a scribe and fool
Made ye clap yir doup on the cutty stool
Ye’ traivelled Scotia gaitherin’ thochts
An man’.. ye dipped in mony troches
For bairnies a’ aroon saw Daddy
Fin spyin’ oot that Mossgiel laddie
O’ sins and drooth ye hid yer shairin
But truly Rab ye wiz a rare yin
An so at Januar two and five
Every year that we’re alive
We’ll rob the haggis o’ts intimmers
We’ll raise a glass and toast the limmers
But abune a’ this oor thocht returns
To that bright star .... Robbie Burns
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