I was born near four miles from Nith-head, Where fourteen years I got my bread; My learning it can soon be told, Ten weeks when I was seven years old With a good old religious wife, Who liv'd a quiet and sober life; Indeed she took of me more pains Than some does now of forty bairns. With my attention, and her skill, I read the Bible no that ill; And when I grew a wee thought mair, I read when I had time to spare. But a' the whole tract of my time, I found myself inclin'd to rhyme; When I see merry company, I sing a song with mirth and glee, And sometimes I the whisky pree, But 'deed its best to let it be. A' my faults I will not tell, I scarcely ken them a' mysel; I've come thro' various scenes of life, Yet never was a married wife. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...A SEA DIALOGUE by OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES TALES OF A WAYSIDE INN: THE THIRD DAY: AZRAEL by HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW HALVING IT WITH WITHER by FRANKLIN PIERCE ADAMS SEPTEMBER by MAVIS CLARE BARNETT THE VOYAGE; TO MAXIME DU CAMP by CHARLES BAUDELAIRE THE MISTLETOE BOUGH by THOMAS HAYNES BAYLY THE WILD DOVES by GEORGES BOUTELLEAU |