Bliss Carman, et al., eds. The World’s Best Poetry. 1904.
III. WarThe Bonnets of Bonnie Dundee
Sir Walter Scott (17711832)T
“Ere the king’s crown shall fall, there are crowns to be broke;
So let each cavalier who loves honor and me
Come follow the bonnets of bonnie Dundee!”
Come saddle your horses, and call up your men;
Come open the Westport and let us gang free,
And it ’s room for the bonnets of bonnie Dundee!
The bells are rung backward, the drums they are beat;
But the provost, douce man, said, “Just e’en let him be,
The gude toun is well quit of that deil of Dundee!”
Ilk carline was flyting and shaking her pow;
But the young plants of grace they looked cowthie and slee,
Thinking, Luck to thy bonnet, thou bonnie Dundee!
As if half the west had set tryst to be hanged;
There was spite in each look, there was fear in each ee,
As they watched for the bonnets of bonnie Dundee.
And lang-hafted gullies to kill cavaliers;
But they shrunk to close-heads, and the causeway was free
At the toss of the bonnet of bonnie Dundee.
And with the gay Gordon he gallantly spoke:
“Let Mons Meg and her marrows speak twa words or three,
For the love of the bonnet of bonnie Dundee.”
“Where’er shall direct me the shade of Montrose!
Your grace in short space shall hear tidings of me,
Or that low lies the bonnet of bonnie Dundee.
If there ’s lords in the Lowlands, there ’s chiefs in the north;
There are wild Duniewassals three thousand times three
Will cry ‘Hoigh!’ for the bonnet of bonnie Dundee.
There ’s steel in the scabbard that dangles beside;
The brass shall be burnished, the steel shall flash free,
At a toss of the bonnet of bonnie Dundee.
Ere I own an usurper I ’ll couch with the fox;
And tremble, false whigs, in the midst of your glee,
You have not seen the last of my bonnet and me.”
The kettle-drums clashed, and the horsemen rode on,
Till on Ravelston’s cliffs and on Clermiston’s lea
Died away the wild war-notes of bonnie Dundee.
Come saddle the horses, and call up the men;
Come open your doors and let me gae free,
For it ’s up with the bonnets of bonnie Dundee!