[weird screech]
Ah, Tam! ah, Tam! thou'll get thy fairin'![22]
In hell they'll roast thee like a herrin'!
In vain thy Kate awaits thy comin'!
Kate soon will be a woefu' woman!
Now do thy speedy utmost, Meg,
And win the key-stane o' the brig;
There at them thou thy tail may toss,
A running stream they darena cross.
But ere the key-stane she could make,
The fient a tail she had to shake! [devil]
For Nannie, far before the rest,
Hard upon noble Maggie prest,
And flew at Tam wi' furious ettle; [endeavor]
But little wist she Maggie's mettle!
Ae spring brought off her master hale, [whole]
But left behind her ain gray tail:
The carlin caught her by the rump, [clutched]
And left poor Maggie scarce a stump.
Now, wha this tale o' truth shall read,
Ilk man and mother's son, take heed;
Whene'er to drink you are inclin'd,
Or cutty-sarks rin in your mind,
Think! ye may buy the joys o'er dear;
Remember Tam o' Shanter's mare.
[21] Woven in a reed of 1,700 divisions.
[22] Lit., a present from a fair; deserts and something more.
Description in Burns is not confined to man and society: he has much
to say of nature, animate and inanimate.
Though within a few miles of the ocean, the scenery among which the
poet grew up was inland scenery.
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