Burns night will rapidly be upon us. This year I am preparing for 3 Burns Suppers. At two I am giving the Immortal Memory and at the other I simply need to say the Selkirk grace.
I do enjoy reading Burns and wished I had started to read him years ago. Sadly we did very little of Burns at school and there was more Shakespeare on the curriculum( and this in Scottish schools!).
In his poem 'Address to the unco guid'( address to the rigidly righteous) Burns presents a biting satire of those who look down on others with a self righteousness. The poem is prefaced by a reference to Ecclesiastes 7:16.
The first verse reads:
O ye wha are sae guid yersel
Sae pious and sae holy
Ye’ve nought to do but mark and tell
Your neighbours’ fauts and follies
Whase life is like a weel- gaun mill
Supplied with store o' water,
the heapet happer's ebbing still
and still the clap plays clatter.
The final verse reminds the reader -
Who made the heart, tis he alone
Decidedly can try us
He knows each chord, its various tone
Each spring, its various bias
Then at the balance, let’s be mute
We never can adjust it
What’s done we partly may compute
But know not what’s resisted.
