Scottish Doggerel
September 29th 2010 09:03
Here's another bit of poetry/doggerel, written by Lady Macochie, in The Scotsman, 11th Sept 1967. Sounds like she's got it in for someone....!
Awake, my muse, bring bell and book
To curse the hand that cuttings took.
May every sort of garden pest
His little plot of ground infest
Who stole the plants from Inverewe,
From Falkland Palace, Crathes too.
Let caterpillars, capsid bugs,
Leaf-hoppers, thrips, all sorts of slugs,
Play havoc with his garden plot,
And a late frost destroy the lot.
To curse the hand that cuttings took.
May every sort of garden pest
His little plot of ground infest
Who stole the plants from Inverewe,
From Falkland Palace, Crathes too.
Let caterpillars, capsid bugs,
Leaf-hoppers, thrips, all sorts of slugs,
Play havoc with his garden plot,
And a late frost destroy the lot.
This poem reminds me another poem, one by Ruth Dallas, a Dunedin poet, whom I met in her very old age. I set this poem to music some years ago. It's called The Gardener's Song.
Chickweed, sorrel and fat hen,
Whose back will you be breaking then,
Couch grass in my carrot rows
When I am done with spades and hoes?
Whose patience, frost, will you be trying,
Moth and grub, when I am lying
Under a bough that all year bears
Blossom and ambrosial pears?
Whose the voice that will bewail,
Your havoc, soft, and secret snail,
When I am harvesting peerless marrows,
Pumpkins big, as straw-filled barrows?
Wax or languish, I care not,
Thrip or current bush, black spot,
Not one of you will vex me then,
Chick-weed, sorrel and fat hen.
Whose back will you be breaking then,
Couch grass in my carrot rows
When I am done with spades and hoes?
Whose patience, frost, will you be trying,
Moth and grub, when I am lying
Under a bough that all year bears
Blossom and ambrosial pears?
Whose the voice that will bewail,
Your havoc, soft, and secret snail,
When I am harvesting peerless marrows,
Pumpkins big, as straw-filled barrows?
Wax or languish, I care not,
Thrip or current bush, black spot,
Not one of you will vex me then,
Chick-weed, sorrel and fat hen.
Note that in this case Dallas isn't castigating some thief, but the weeds in her garden themselves.
[Poem used by permission of the author]
The photo is of Falkland Palace.
| 121 |
| Vote |
subscribe to this blog
