Page:Alloway Kirk or Tam o Shanter a tale and man was made to mourn a poem with a sketch of burnss life.pdf/18

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⁠As Tamie glowr’d, amaz’d and curious,
The mirth and fun grew fast and furious:
The piper loud and louder blew:
The dancers quick and quicker flew;
They reel’d, they set, they cross’d, they sleekit
Till ilka Carlin swat and reekit,
And koost her dudies to the wark,
And linkit at it in her sark!

⁠Now, Tam, O Tam! had they been queens
A’ plump and strapping in their teens;
Their sarks, instead o’ creeshie flanen,
Been snaw white, seventeen hunder linen!
Thir breeks o’ mine, my only pair.
That ance were plush o’ gude blue hair,
I wad hae gien them aff my hurdies,
For ae blink o the bony burdies!

⁠But wither’d beldams, auld and droll,
Rigwoodie hags wad spean a foal,
Louping and flinging on a crummock,
I wonder did na turn thy stomach.—
But Tam kend what was what fu’ brawly.
There was ae winsome wench and wally,
That night inlisted in the cove,
(Lang after kend on Carrick shore;
For mony a beast to dead she shot,
And perish’d mony a bonny boat,
And shook baith meikle corn an’ bear,
And kept the country-side in fear—)
Her cutty sark, o’ Paisley barn,
That while, a lassie she had worn,