Back to Index

The Blast—1875

by Robert Louis Stevenson, 1885

It's rainin'. Weet's the gairden sod,
Weet the lang roads whaur gangrels plod—
A maist unceevil thing o' God
      In mid July—
If ye'll just curse the sneckdraw, dod!
      An' sae wull I!

He's a braw place in Heev'n, ye ken,
An' lea's us puir, forjaskit men
Clamjamfried in the but and ben
      He ca's the earth—
A wee bit inconvenient den
      No muckle worth;

An' whiles, at orra times, keeks out,
Sees what puir mankind are about;
An' if He can, I've little doubt,
      Upsets their plans;
He hates a' mankind, brainch and root,
      And a' that's man's.

An' whiles, whan they tak heart again,
An' life i' the sun looks braw an' plain,
Doun comes a jaw o' droukin' rain
      Upon their honours—
God sends a spate outower the plain,
      Or mebbe thun'ers.

Lord safe us, life's an unco thing!
Simmer an' Winter, Yule an' Spring,
The damned, dour-heartit seasons bring
      A feck o' trouble.
I wadnae try't to be a king—
      No, nor for double.

But since we're in it, willy-nilly,
We maun be watchfü', wise an' skilly,
An' no mind ony ither billy,
      Lassie nor God.
But drink—that's my best counsel till 'e:
      Sae tak the nod.

Published in A Child's Garden of Verses
Tags:

Any corrections or public domain poems I should have here? Email me at poems (at) this domain.