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ROBERT BURNS
The Address to the Haggis
Auld Lang Syne
The Bonny Wee Thing
Epistle to Dr. Blacklock
Farewell
Invitation to a Medical Gentleman
Is There for Honest Poverty
The Jolly Beggars: A Cantata
Masonic Song
The Master’s Apron
Miscellanea
Oh, were I on Parnassus' Hill
A Red Red Rose
Scots Wha Hae With Wallace Bled
Such a Parcel of Rogues
To a Mouse
Three Graces for dinner
The Tree of Liberty
The verse of Robert Burns
[Robbie
Detail from an unsigned, undated oil painting owned by Ancient Light Lodge No.88 in Delta, British Columbia. Download a grayscale version or silhouette.
Address to the haggis
FAIR fa' your honest sonsie1. face,
Great chieftain o' the puddin' race!
Aboon them a' ye tak your place,
Painch, tripe or thairm:2.
Weel are ye worthy of a grace,
As lang’s my arm.
The groaning trencher there ye fill,
Your hurdies like a distant hill,
Your pin*. would help to mend a mill,
In time o' need,
While through your pores the dews distil
Like amber bead.
His knife see rustic labour dight,3.
And cut you up wi' ready slight.
Trenching your gushing entrails bright
Like ony ditch ;
And then, oh what a glorious sight,
Warm-reekin',4. rich!
Then, horn for horn they stretch and strive.
Deil tak the hindmost, on they drive,
Till a' their weel-swalled kytes belyve.
Are bent like drums ;
Then auld guidmen, maist like to rive,5.
Bethankit hums.
Is there that owere his French ragoût,
Or olio that wad staw a sow,6.
Or fricasse wad mak her spew7.
Wi' perfect scunner,8.
Looks down wi' sneering, scornfu' view
On sic a dinner?
Poor devil! see him owere his trash,
As feckless9. as a wither'd rash.
His spindle-shank a guid whip-lash
His nieve10. a nit:
Through bloody flood or field to dash,
Oh, how unfit!
But mark the rustic, haggis-fed,
The trembling earth resounds his tread,
Clap in his walie nieve a blade,
He'll mak it whissle;
And legs, and arms, and heads will sned,11.
Like taps o' thrissle.
Ye powers wha mak mankind your care,
And dish them out their bill o' fare.
Auld Scotland wants nae skinking ware,12.
That jaups13. in luggies;14.
But, if ye wish her gratefu' prayer.
Gie her a haggis!

1 Jolly.^ 2 Small intestines.^ 3 Wipe.^
4 Smoking.^ 5 Burst.^ 6 Pig. ^
7 Vomit.^ 8 Loathing.^ 9 Pithless.^
10 Fist.^ 11 Cut off.^ 12 Thin stuff.^
13 Splashes.^ 14 Wooden dishes.^
* A wooden skewer with which it is lifted out and in to the vessel in which it is cooked.^
Bellies.^
Transcribed from The Complete Works of Robert Burns. William P. Nimmo, Edinburgh: 1867. pp. 51-2. Footnotes renumbered.

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