Louis

Ye hae nae heather, peat, nor birks, Nae trout in a’ yer burnies lurks, There are nae bonny U.P. kirks, An awfu’ place! Nane kens the Covenant o’ Works Frae that o’ Grace!

But whiles, maybe, to them ye’ll read Blads o’ the Covenanting creed, And whiles their pagan wames ye’ll feed On halesome parritch; p. 49And syne ye’ll gar them learn a screed O’ the Shorter Carritch.

p. 49

Yet thae uncovenanted shavers Hae rowth, ye say, o’ clash and clavers O’ gods and etins—auld wives’ havers, But their delight; The voice o’ him that tells them quavers Just wi’ fair fright.

And ye might tell, ayont the faem, Thae Hieland clashes o’ our hame To speak the truth, I takna shame To half believe them; And, stamped wi’ Tusitala’s name, They’ll a’ receive them.

And folk to come ayont the sea May hear the yowl o’ the Banshie, And frae the water-kelpie flee, Ere a’ things cease, And island bairns may stolen be By the Folk o’ Peace.

p. 50FOR MARK TWAIN’S JUBILEE

p. 50

To brave Mark Twain, across the sea, The years have brought his jubilee; One hears it half with pain, That fifty years have passed and gone Since danced the merry star that shone Above the babe, Mark Twain!

To

How many and many a weary day, When sad enough were we, ‘Mark’s way’  (Unlike the Laureate’s Mark’s) Has made us laugh until we cried, And, sinking back exhausted, sighed, Like Gargery, Wot larx!

We turn his pages, and we see The Mississippi flowing free; We turn again, and grin p. 51O’er all Tom Sawyer did and planned, With him of the Ensanguined Hand, With Huckleberry Finn!

p. 51

Spirit of mirth, whose chime of bells Shakes on his cap, and sweetly swells Across the Atlantic main, Grant that Mark’s laughter never die, That men, through many a century, May chuckle o’er Mark Twain!

p. 53III POEMS WRITTEN UNDER THE INFLUENCE OF WORDSWORTH

p. 53

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