THE COUNTERBLAST · 1886 M Y bonny man, the warld, it's true, Was made for neither me nor you; It's just a place to warstle through, As Job confessed o't; And aye the best that we'll can do Is mak the best o't. There's rowth o' wrang, I'm free to say: An' life a rough an' land'art play An' food's anither name for clart; Aweel, I cannae mend your cart: A feck o' folk frae first to last Have through this queer experience passed; But twa-three ithers, east an' wast, Whaur braid the briery muirs expand, An' there the canty wanderer fand Trout in the burn grow great as herr'n; The muircock an' the barefit bairn Sic-like the howes o' life to some: Green loans whaur they ne'er fash their thumb, But mark the muckle winds that come, Soopin' an' cool. Or hear the powrin' burnie drum The evil wi' the guid they tak; An' up the rude, unbieldy track What you would like's a palace haʼ, Weel, than, ye cannae hae't: that's a' An' since at life ye've ta'en the grue, An' winnae blithely hirsle through, Ye've fund the very thing to doThat's to drink speerit; An' shüne we'll hear the last o' you An' blithe to hear it! The shoon ye coft, the life ye lead, Ithers will heir when aince ye're deid; They'll heir your tasteless bite o' breid, An' find it sappy; They'll to your dulefü' house succeed, An' there be happy. As whan a glum an' fractious wean The ither bairns a' fa' to play'n', THE COUNTERBLAST IRONICAL T's strange that God should fash to frame The yearth and lift sae hie, An' clean forget to explain the same They gutsy, donnered ither folk, But why present a pig in a poke They ither folk their parritch eat But the mind is no to be wyled wi' meat They ither folk, they court their joes At gloamin' on the lea; But they're made of a commoner clay, I suppose, Than a gentleman like me. |