The Rymor and I...
The Rymor and I
1.Thomas the Rymor
2.I
A contemporary extemporization
1
When Rymor who frae Erseldown
Espied a pultring maid (Pultring – rutting, lascivious. Pultrous – lustful)
‘Twas love sweet love led him along
A traipsing in a glade
Tae know some new thing perhaps
Keen Thomas strove below
But love oh love led him along
Once more tae earthly show
For there in lands of mimicry
True Thomas swane not elderly (Swane – young)
Where there did he of Erseldown
Enquire by Eldon tree
Had Thomas known what bode beneath
This towering spire above
A roving he might nae ha’e gone
So spritely for a love
What saw he there few souls can tell
A poem suffice tae say
Farewell one love so for another
The pride of seelie sidh (Seelie sidh – good fairies)
His homeland here thought sore missed he
Of heather and the heath
Some airy sprite watched o’er the toun
Where Rymor sank beneath
Tho’ there be more no doubt hid
By dint of those queer folk in
Fay land should gift betoken
Truer the word was e’er spoken
Unseelie sidh save ee’ tae see (Unseelie sidh – bad fairies)
What roves there too near the Eldon tree
Where Robert Kirk and Rymor be
And soon perhaps a witeless me
Yon Rymor stone and Huntly burn
Wi’ crooked stream and perilous urn
Stand by the Tweed ae surly
‘Neath jagged crags o’er perilous pourie
Once stood by Eldon tree uprooted
An entrance now mere lore
Of sovereign sent by which he went
Toils ne’rmore
Where Tweed’s burns tumble far and wide
Frae Lanark o’er tae Lauder
And lark crow flies the Eldons pry
Along its bridled border
And thru’ each night
When spires they sleep anon
The ferlies buzz their toil tae day
And keep their watch tae dawn
Thus here the tale of which is told
Of heaven above and hell unfold
I leave it now and up tae thee
Tae marvel of it naturally
First here a cliché tae clear this up
I sip now of communion cup
And pray the Lord my soul tae keep
Should I pass o’er in my sleep
2
When fair drank I the bubbly shade
Not once tae meet a tripping maid
Instead saw I cold and unafraid
A troll sat ominously in the glade
My faithful friend submissive she
Sped back a tad affrightedly
And on that day we wisely knew
Tae go not through where hell hunds do
Of things true which I ha’e seen
‘Twas ne’er quite the ferlie queen
The face which did at first appear
Kirk’s troublesome haunting bode oh so clear
Beneath an upturned bowl-shaped hat a head
What doting thing is this that nature thou
Such malady can procreate
And hallowed wings allow
A beating heart therein no more
That bears out tae the wilderness
Tae build itself a house thereof
Of abject wickedness
Tae suffer Kirk’s fate when he did mill
Upon a charmed ferlie hill
Was not my wish that dingle day (Dingle – silly)
When ferlie kids came out tae play
A sentinel or something best unspoken
What so it be ‘twas not for me
Unlike Kirk who drees his weird (Drees his weird – endures his fate)
Still yet beneath the ferlie scree
What once a man mid earth’s domain
Now cursed be a sad refrain
A tarnished soul no doubt tae say
Was once profane humanity
Grim in its grimmest form
The geniie wings the storm
Slight as some cloud said Shelly
That catches but the palest tinge of day
A home for itself tae make
In Shinar tae the East
Drift and blow o’er all the earth
Tae sate unholy beast
Tae feed its ain atrophied clan
It milks the wickedness of man
Accursed the magic car it be
Was Shelley’s ode that means tae me
The hag sped o'er the windy muir
A mile I'd say no more or fewer
Tae meet wi' mother sure I think
It moved a mile there in a blink
A mile I knew for it did turn
At Lee Pen's tip o'er icy burn
And then wi’ speed uncanny flew
Once not tae disbelieve it true
There in a box where was my name
Did not occur tae me as sane
But in it there inked my bode tae
And someone took it fleece away
Tae thieve the box I thought low
Which soon thereafter I did know
That something other had occurred
Before the move tae Ladyurd
A craft o'er me flew by the eve
When first I saw baith hags on leave
Lee Pen was where I stood below
The moon lit low wi' rosy glow
A man flew on that craft I found
The next day he was on the ground
What time, he asked, was that say clear
Same time I saw his craft appear
The pilot said there was delay
Conflicting lights there high that day
And there I was, full witness tae
Twa sentries of auld Nick's array
Scotia’s bard knew it well
What skim the muirs are spat frae hell
And renew their leagues in kirkyards
O’er howcket dead as Burns had rightly said (Howcket – dug up)
Of Michael Scott bard Burns did know
Thus inked in verse what doth below
Become of frail humanity (Verse 9 Address to the devil)
When cursed fleas steal blasphemy
Now scholar Scott of his demise
Wise of hell’s dour eldritch spies
Took tae rest the cross of Christ
Tae guard his grave frae hellish tryst
And a book of spells hilarity
The Bible was what took with he
Tae stay the fiends is no haver
For Scott knew something true and graver
Thought Michael Scott by one side
Divined the Eldon woe betide
A wizard not was he
But a scholar of philosophy
Of Scott said able divided three
The hill by Eldon tree
‘Twas fable mere and simply put
Tae clove the Eldon hill a hoot
Tho’ Scott ne’er cast a single spell
Yet Dante plunged him deep in hell
In the eight circle of pain
For e’er there tae remain
The truth be told of what Burns said
A plunder was the horror’s head
White, grizzled, black and grey
The wisp of hill and speedy brae
Now this account of no pretense
Might seem as if tae make no sense
But then a voice I sudden knew
Just as twa steeds spun up in view
Harked, ‘Get thee hence’ and off they sped
One garment grey, the other red
Tae flit o’er earth’s high vault bright
And build a home in broad daylight
Tho’ ‘Woe is me’ our Rymor be
But woe am I as well
For I ha’e spied what few ha’e spied
And ken there is a hell
There in the trees black phantoms bode
By a track my ain dear strode
But dear God’s love abides tae there
Wherein doth lie the evil stare
Another seer suffice tae say
Along Kirk’s line and Rymor’s way
Both Kirk and I tae ferlie curse
‘Thou hast proclaimed our power, be thou now our prey’
What crime so foul a bode be rent
By the ruin of an owrie babble (Owrie – superstitious)
The ferlie curse declared of us
Was fairer on its rabble
A family gone, a wife, a son
A testament tae ire
Which could ha’e been a threnody (Threnody – a dirge)
When once in dream I saw a raging fire
Then soon happed that calamity
A drink, the flame, the cursed frame
Of something best unseen
No delusive fancy I saw mere in dream
And in the midst of roaring flame
Of which I am tae blame
I looked on high a time tae die
The flames did not touch me
As revelry mess is not my thing
I swept the briar for the spring
Then under waning sun was stung
Misfortune for a good deed done
Suspected there that wily spy
Was prying frae the broken glade
And as I cleared the rotten core
Hell came knocking at my door
First ragweed nags of dizzy crags
Then Shelley’s magic car that eve’
Which ‘twas like new machinery
That rode on by quite silently
Then there beneath prints deep in snow
Affrighted that we did not slow
But hurried onward home did we
Tae leave behind a dead ferlie
A hum of bees times thousand ten
There when the bower burned blue
The host of azure earth appeared
Tae fetch his surly due
And twa fine minds there by whom live
Solved the riddle wrong
A fa’an satellite ‘twas said they
That floated by along
By that shorn way my hund and I
Did pass there by the ferlie lie
And as we did a ferlie light
On the ground cast shadow bright
Above my bode a rendezvous
I timed it at twelve thirty two
Not once but twice did one pass through
Tae vanish there frae starlit view
Just as before my maid there saw
What was a beast of sorts
A bird or no; what so it be
‘Twas deltoid frae A tae C
Was where spied I the deltoid dog
Another kind I met one eve
No owner there I saw at least
By that dwelling of the beast
The jet black hund on back road dark
By me strode melancholy
Tae find it flat upon that track
Was what I thought when I got back
Fixed steeds went thru’ of that I’m sure
Saw I those lights bright and impure
The hund was gone and there a steer
It took the shape of an ogling deer
And black hund oft’ thought Azrael
Meant psychopomp for me (Psychopomp – keeper of souls)
That fine one day contrite I prayed
The return of my family
A speeding steed a sad affair
Where killed a cat was there
All white be it as it had been
There now delights the ferlie queen
By haugh and wa’ where once it sat
No more tae chase the beady rat
Now it chases ferlie sprites
The summer long and winter night
Where in that forest be decay
Three ferlies cold came by the way
In single file not tae beguile
I spied a furtive smile
All garbed akin the ferlies three
Were ‘weird’ my braw lad said tae me
And hastened onward home did we
Thereby no more tae be
Then man in whit
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Submitted by Rustybuckets on November 22, 2016
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 8:44 min read
- 83 Views
Quick analysis:
Scheme | Text too long |
---|---|
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 9,742 |
Words | 1,745 |
Stanzas | 67 |
Stanza Lengths | 3, 1, 5, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 9, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 8, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 1 |
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"The Rymor and I..." Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 24 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/45304/the-rymor-and-i...>.
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