Some Scottish Poems?

Subject: Some Scottish Poems?
From: GUEST,shona
Date: 29 Jun 01 - 06:00 PM

Hi! i was just wondering if anyone had any good poems or knew of any good scottish poems that i could have the words of to put some music to? some old scottish poems would be good, if possible! thank you!

Subject: RE: Some Scottish Poems?
From: GUEST
Date: 29 Jun 01 - 06:16 PM

McGonigle!

Subject: RE: Some Scottish Poems?
From: John Nolan
Date: 29 Jun 01 - 11:03 PM

Robert Garioch's Sisyphus presents an interesting challenge. It has 17 lines and a classic Greek metre - and if ye get a tune for that, ye still have tae sing it in Lallans. Here's the first line, tae give ye the idea, hen:
Bumpity doun in the corrie gaed whuddran the pitiless whun stane.

Subject: RE: Some Scottish Poems?
From: John Nolan
Date: 29 Jun 01 - 11:25 PM

Helpful hint:
By the addition of the atmospheric word "hoooooch" at the end of each line, Sisyphus would almost fit the tune that accompanies:
"Mrs. McGuigan got flung oot the jiggin for liftin' her leg too high..."

Subject: RE: Some Scottish Poems?
From: davidg
Date: 29 Jun 01 - 11:42 PM

McGonigle rules!

Subject: RE: Some Scottish Poems?
From:
Date: 30 Jun 01 - 01:13 AM

McGonagall

Subject: RE: Some Scottish Poems?
From: Stewie
Date: 30 Jun 01 - 01:56 AM

Antonia Fraser 'Scottish Love Poems: A Personal Anthology' is a delightful and wide-ranging collection, many of which would suit your purpose. My copy is a Penguin paperback, published in 1975 - probably out of print, but libraries would have a copy.

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: Some Scottish Poems?
From: GUEST,Willa
Date: 30 Jun 01 - 04:07 AM

Shona, try one of the Robert Burns sites. Many of his poems are set to music, but you could use your own tunes if you wanted to.

Subject: RE: Some Scottish Poems?
From: Uncle_DaveO
Date: 30 Jun 01 - 12:38 PM

Almost all of Burns's songs were written to preexisting tunes, and many of them are now sung to other tunes than they were intended for. For example, "Aul Lang Syne" is almost never sung to the tune Burns intended. A publisher made the change.

Dave Oesterreich

Subject: RE: Some Scottish Poems?
From: GUEST,Bob Lynch
Date: 09 Apr 12 - 06:48 PM

What is the rest of the rhyme that starts "Mrs McGuigan gor flung oot the jiggin for liftin her legs too high"? I only know the first line and I'm intrigued what comes next.

Subject: RE: Some Scottish Poems?
From: GUEST,Allan Conn
Date: 09 Apr 12 - 06:58 PM

How about "The Tryst" by William Soutar?

O luely, luely cam she in
And luely she lay doun:
I kent her be her caller lips
And her breists sae sma' and roun'.

A' thru the nicht we spak nae word
Nor sinder'd bane frae bane:
A' thru the nicht I heard her hert
Gang soundin' wi' my ain.

It was about the waukrife hour
Whan cocks begin to craw
That she smool'd saftly thru the mirk
Afore the day wud daw.

Sae luely, luely, cam she in
Sae luely was she gaen
And wi' her a' my simmer days
Like they had never been

Subject: RE: Some Scottish Poems?
From: Joe_F
Date: 09 Apr 12 - 09:13 PM

Hugh MacDiarmid was a Marxist materialist Christian mystic plagiarist, but his verses do stick in one's mind, mine anyway.

Mars is braw in crammasy,
Venus in a green silk goun,
The auld mune shaks her gowden feathers,
Their starry talk's a wheen o' blethers,
Nane for thee a thouchtie sparin',
Earth, thou bonnie broukit bairn!
-- _But greet, an' in your tears ye'll droun
The haill clanjamfrie!_

Subject: RE: Some Scottish Poems?
From: GUEST,Jim I
Date: 09 Apr 12 - 09:20 PM

http://archive.org/details/ancientballadsso01buchrich

Subject: RE: Some Scottish Poems?
From: Dave Hanson
Date: 10 Apr 12 - 04:12 AM

On yonder hill there stands a coo,

It must have gone, it's not there noo.

Dave H

Subject: RE: Some Scottish Poems?
From: matt milton
Date: 10 Apr 12 - 04:18 AM

Hamish Henderson's poems are often in a meter that's ballad-like, and which fits a song.

The trouble with setting most poetry to music is that a lot of poems use a much more complex rhyme scheme (and rhythmic structure) than song typically requires. That Hugh McDiarmid poem above is a great example: the second line ending "goun" doesn't actually get rhymed until the seventh. And in between the two there's so much variation of rhythm and rhyme that it would sound very forced and contrived when sung. Not saying it can't be done though...

There's a good website out there somewhere which compiles a load of "Literary Ballads". Not hard to Google.

Subject: RE: Some Scottish Poems?
From: BobKnight
Date: 10 Apr 12 - 05:09 AM

Dave Hanson - that's avery "Anglified" version.
On yonder hill there stands a coo,
It's nae there noo.
It must've shifted.

Subject: RE: Some Scottish Poems?
From: Musket
Date: 10 Apr 12 - 05:41 AM

It was a broad licht moonlit nicht.
I enjoyed a deep fried mars bar

Amen & druse

Subject: RE: Some Scottish Poems?
From: Dave Hanson
Date: 10 Apr 12 - 06:56 AM

Aye, yer nae wrang laddie.

Dave H