I understand what the verse is saying but now that michaelr has pointed it out, I can't get my head round the syntax of those first few lines. It's not the language that's the problem - it still doesn't make sense to me in English translation.

It's that "Is there...?" that is the problem. Is there ... what? It's got no subject. If I try to rearrange the sentence, whether in Scots or in English, I can't make total sense of it. The best I can find is a suggestion by a Guest in an old Mudcat thread:

"Is there anybody who, just because he's poor, hangs his head?
We walk past such a coward slave -- WE dare to be poor (we're poor and we're proud)"

So if that's the meaning (and it seems very plausible), maybe there's some archaic contruction like, "Is there who ...?" used in the sense of "Is there anyone who...?"

Marje