I came across this
poem, penned by
Robert Burns around 1793, in an 1870s collection of
recommended reading for
schoolchildren. Burns wrote to a friend in that year: "There is a
tradition, which I have met with in many places in
Scotland — that it was
Robert Bruce's
march at the
battle of
Bannockburn. This thought, in my
yesternight's
eveningwalk, warmed me to a
pitch of
enthusiasm on the theme of
liberty and
independence, which I threw into a kind of
Scottish ode, fitted to the
air, that one might suppose to be the
gallant royal Scot's
address to his
heroic followers on that eventful morning." I like the odd
meter that it's written in, and the capturing of
accent and am oddly entranced by the "fight or die for freedom" motif, even though it runs counter to my beliefs. But then again I like
horror movies too.
----
Scots, wha hae wi'
Wallace bled,
Scots, wham Bruce has often led;
Welcome to your
gory bed,
Or to
victorie!
Now's the
day, and now's the
hour,
See the front o' battle lour;
See approach proud
Edward's
pow'r—
Chains and
slaverie!
Wha will be a
traitor knave?
Wha can fill a
coward's
grave?
Wha sae
base as be a
slave?
Let him turn and flee!
Wha for Scotland's
king and
law
Freedom's
sword will strongly
draw,
Freeman stand, or freeman fa'?
Let him follow me!
By
oppression's
woes and
pains!
By our
sons in
servile chains!
We will
drain our dearest
veins,
But they shall be free!
Lay the
proud usurpers low!
Tyrants fall in every
foe!
Liberty's in every
blow!—
Let us
do or die!