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  • Embro: Southside Ditties
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Embro: Southside Ditties

Gordon Jarvie

Tune: Ti, ti, ti, ta (wi’ apologies tae Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony)

I

Duddingston Loch
Skate ower the ice
Wish ye wir whisky?

Prestonfield Hoose
Curtains afire?
Thon’s a bit risky

Morningside Road
23 bus?
Maks ye feel frisky

II

Liberton Brae
Playing aa day
Ti, ti, ti, ta

Salisbury Crags
Pit oot mair flags
Ti, ti, ti, ta

Holyrood Perk
No eftir derk
Ti, ti, ti, ta

Colinton Dell
Whit is yon smell?
Ti, ti, ti, ta

Comiston Drive
Guid for a jive
Ti, ti, ti, ta

Newington Road
Ken the post code?
Ti, ti, ti, ta

Gilmerton Dykes
Jimp tae yer bikes
Ti, ti, ti, ta

Hermiston Gait
Dinna be blate
Ti, ti, ti, ta

Hartington Place
Let’s hae a race
Ti, ti, ti, ta

Burdiehoose Square
Naebody’s there
Ti, ti, ti, ta

Craiglockhart Hill
Cufft ye fower–nil
Ti, ti, ti, ta

Juniper Green
Wha’s the daft preen?
Ti, ti, ti, ta

Tynecastle’s tough
(Slow doon) Thon’s/quite/eneuch
Ti, ti, ti, ta.

Gordon Jarvie

from A Man Passing Through: memoir with poems selected and new (London: Greenwich Exchange, 2014)

Reproduced by permission of the author and publisher.

Tags:

Edinburgh Edinburgh maps Scots suitable for children
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Gordon Jarvieb.1941

Gordon Jarvie is the compiler of three enduring anthologies of Scottish poetry, has edited several of the 'Scottie Series' of children's books for National Museums Scotland, and has written his own poetry since the 1990s.
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