NEAR DEVIL'S CORNER (HALLOWE'EN 2013)

Oddly enough, while as a child I hypostasized so many abstractions, I left out the Calvinistic Devil.  He never worried me, for I could not take him seriously.  The fatal influence of Robert Burns made me regard him as a rather humorous and jovial figure;  nay more, as something of a sportsman, dashing and debonair.  I agreed with the old Scots lady who complained that “if we were a’ eident in the pursuit o’our callings as the Deil, puir man, it would be better for us. “  I would not have been afraid if he had risen suddenly out of the cabbage-garden at Hallowe’en.  Sin was a horrid thing, but not the Arch-Sinner.

From:  John Buchan, Memory Hold-The-Door (“Wood, Water and Hill”), London, Hodder & Stoughton,  Ltd.,  1940.

SCOTTISH Note:  "eident" -- diligent and conscientious; "puir" -- poor; "deil" -- devil.

Upper:  Glenshee near Devil’s Corner, Scotland

Lower:  Devil with kneeling couple, Rosslyn Chapel, Scotland

Roxy Music:  In Every Dream Home A Heartache (Link)

TO A MOUSE

Wee, sleekit, cowran, tim'rous beastie,

O, what a panic's in thy breastie!

Thou need na start awa sae hasty,

Wi' bickering brattle!

I wad be laith to rin an' chase thee,

Wi' murd'ring pattle! 

I'm truly sorry Man's dominion

Has broken Nature's social union,

An' justifies that ill opinion,

Which makes thee startle,

At me, thy poor, earth-born companion,

An' fellow-mortal! 

I doubt na, whyles, but thou may thieve;

What then? poor beastie, thou maun live!

A daimen-icker in a thrave 'S a sma' request:

I'll get a blessin wi' the lave,

An' never miss't! 

Thy wee-bit housie, too, in ruin!

It's silly wa's the win's are strewin!

An' naething, now, to big a new ane,

O' foggage green!

An' bleak December's winds ensuin,

Baith snell an' keen!

Thou saw the fields laid bare an' wast,

An' weary Winter comin fast,

An' cozie here, beneath the blast,

Thou thought to dwell,

Till crash! the cruel coulter past

Out thro' thy cell. 

That wee-bit heap o' leaves an' stibble,

Has cost thee monie a weary nibble!

Now thou's turn'd out, for a' thy trouble,

But house or hald.

To thole the Winter's sleety dribble,

An' cranreuch cauld! 

But Mousie, thou are no thy-lane,

In proving foresight may be vain:

The best laid schemes o' Mice an' Men,

Gang aft agley,

An' lea'e us nought but grief an' pain,

For promis'd joy! 

Still, thou art blest, compar'd wi' me!

The present only toucheth thee:

But Och! I backward cast my e'e,

On prospects drear!

An' forward, tho' I canna see,

I guess an' fear! 

Poem:  Robert Burns -- To A Mouse (1785)

Poem Animation: Robert Burns -- To A Mouse (Link)

Song: The Kinks -- Now And Then (Link)

Song: Kevin Ayers And The Whole World -- Hat Song (Link)