Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, A WHEEN AUL' MEMORIES: 2. DRUMPELLIER, by JANET HAMILTON


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

A WHEEN AUL' MEMORIES: 2. DRUMPELLIER, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Ye kenna, my cummers, ye never can ken
Last Line: But bonny drumpellier they've left evermore.
Alternate Author Name(s): Hamilton, Janet Thompson
Subject(s): Memory; Past; Time


Ye kenna, my cummers, ye never can ken
That my heid an' my he'rt, baith the but an' the ben,
Are fu' o' aul' memories. The ghaists o' the past—
Some greetin', some lauchin'—come thrangin' an' fast.

When we cam' to the clachan, I min't like yestreen,
The hawthorn was white, an' the birk it was green,
An' the wild flouris war bloomin' sae sweet to the e'e,
An' the bonnie May gowans war white on the lea.

An' the wuds o' Drumpellier war ringin' wi' glee,
An' the bairns thro' the plantin's ran fearless an' free,
For the laird an' the leddy baith liket to see
A' things roun' them happy o' ilka degree.

An' nurses wi' bairns in white cleedin' wad glint
Thro' the trees, an' the wild, gentle laddies ahint
Wad come, an' wi' chasin', an' racin', an' sang,
Gar the wild echoes ring the green wudlan's amang.

There's nae simmer days like the simmer days then,
Sae bricht an' sae bonny they lay on the glen
O' the wannerin' Luggie, that wimplet sae clear,
Thro' hazel an' hawthorn, an' rose-busket breer.

An' the notes o' the mavis an' blackbird wad ring,
An' the gowdspink an' lintie fu' sweetly wad sing
In the green braes o' Kirkwud; sic a walth o' wild flouris,
I never saw onie sic bird-haunted bouris.

But it's "sixty years since"; the aul' gentles are gane,
An' o' the wild laddies few left to mak' mane,
Twa dochters, gude sain them, are yet to the fore,
But bonny Drumpellier they've left evermore.





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