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  • The Fiddler
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The Fiddler

Marion Angus

A fine player was he …
‘Twas the heather at my knee,
The Lang Hill o’ Fare
An’ a reid rose-tree,
A bonnie dryin’ green,
Wind fae aff the braes,
Liftin’ and shiftin’
The clear-bleached claes.

Syne he played again …
‘Twas dreep, dreep o’ rain,
A bairn at the breist
An’ a warm hearth-stane,
Fire o’ the peat,
Scones o’ barley meal
An’ the whirr, whirr, whirr,
O’ a spinnin’-wheel.

Bit aye, wae’s me!
The hindmaist tune he made …
‘Twas juist a dune wife
Greetin’ in her plaid,
Winds o’ a’ the years,
Naked wa’s atween,
And heather creep, creepin’
Ower the bonnie dryin’ green.


Marion Angus

from The Tinker’s Road and other verses (Glasgow: Gowans & Grey, 1924), and included in The Singin Lass: selected work of Marion Angus, edited by Aimée Chalmers (Polygon, 2006)

Reproduced by permission of the Estate of Marion Angus.

Tags:

ageing everyday life hobbies music musical instruments rhythm Scots scottish poems time passing
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Marion Angus1865 - 1946

Coming late in her life to poetry, Marion Angus wrote during the 1920s, frequently in her native Scots, poems  suggesting social and emotional rejection, and on the ballad-themes of lost love and unquiet spirits.
More about Marion Angus

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