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  • Highways and Byways
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Highways and Byways

Walter Wingate

Highways for eident feet,
That hae their mile to gae;
But byways when spring is sweet,
And bloom is on the slae.

Highways till day is dune,
The girr o’ gear to ca’;
But byways for star and mune,
And wooers twa by twa.

Highways for wheel and whip,
Till rigs are stibblet clear;
But byways for haw and hip,
When robin’s on the brier.

Aye it’s on the highways
The feck o’ life maun gang;
But aye it’s frae the byways
Comes hame the happy sang.


Walter Wingate

Tags:

20th century poems early 20th century poems Poetry by Heart Scotland pre-1914 roads Scots Scots
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Walter Wingate1865 - 1918

Poet and schoolmaster, Walter Wingate was the author of 'The Sair Finger', the much-loved recitation piece about the wean with the skelf in his pinkie (child with a splinter in his little finger!).
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