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  • Tam i’ the Kirk
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Tam i’ the Kirk

Violet Jacob

O Jean, my Jean, when the bell ca’s the congregation
Owre valley an’ hill wi’ the ding frae its iron mou’,
When a’body’s thochts is set on his ain salvation,
Mine’s set on you.

There’s a reid rose lies on the Buik o’ the Word ‘afore ye
That was growin’ braw on its bush at the keek o’ day,
But the lad that pu’d yon flower i’ the mornin’s glory,
He canna pray.

He canna pray; but there’s nane i’ the kirk will heed him
Whaur he sits sae still his lane at the side o’ the wa’,
For nane but the reid rose kens what my lassie gied him –
It an’ us twa!

He canna sing for the sang that his ain he’rt raises,
He canna see for the mist that’s afore his e’en,
And a voice drouns the hale o’ the psalms an’ the paraphrases,
Cryin’ ‘Jean! Jean! Jean!’


Violet Jacob

from Songs of Angus (John Murray, 1915), and included in Voices From Their Ain Countrie: the poems of Marion Angus and Violet Jacob, edited by Katherine Gordon (Glasgow: Association for Scottish Literary Studies, 2006)

Reproduced by kind permission of the Estate of Violet Jacob.

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desire longing Scots
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Violet Jacob1863 - 1946

Violet Jacob, known for her novels of Scottish history and her poetry written in the rich dialect of Angus, was born into an aristocratic family, and lived her adult life as an officer’s wife in England and abroad.
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