“Or The Rigidly Righteous”
This poem is a speech in defense of the ordinary
failings of humanity to those who see themselves as
‘unco guid’, who are in fact too ‘rigidly righteous’
to look with charity on the faults of others.
“My Son, these maxims make a rule,
An’ lump them ay thegither;
The Rigid Righteous is a fool,
the Rigid Wise anither;
The cleanest corn that e’er was dight
May have some pyles o’ caff in;
So ne’er a fellow creature slight
For random fit o’ daffin.
SOLOMON [ECCLESIASTES 7:16]
O ye, wha are so guid yoursel,
Sae pious and sae holy,
Ye’ve nought to do but mark and tell
Your neebors faults and folly;
Whase life is like a weel-gaun mill,
Supplied wi’ store o’ water;
The heapit happer’s ebbing still,
An’ still the clap plays clatter!
Hear me, ye venerable core,
As counsel for poor mortals
That frequent pass douce Wisdom’s door
For glaikit Folly’s portals:
I for their thoughtless, careless sakes
Would here propone defences-
Their donsie tricks, their black mistakes,
Their failings and mischances.
Ye see your state wi’ theirs compared,
And shudder at the niffer;
But cast a moment’s fair regard,
What makes the mighty differ?
Discount what scant occasion gave;
That purity ye pride in;
And [what aft mair than a’ the lave]
Your better art o’ hidin.
Think, when your castigated pulse
Gies now and then a wallop,
What ragings must his veins convulse,
That still eternal gallop!
Wi’ wind and tide fair i’ your tail,
Right on ye scud your sea-way;
But in the teeth o’ baith to sail,
It makes an unco lee-way.
See Social life and Glee sit down
All joyous and unthinking,
Till, quite transmugrify’d, they’re grown
Debauchery and Drinking:
O’ would they stay to calculate,
Th’ eternal consequences,
Or- your more dreaded hell to state-
Damnation of expenses!
Ye high, exalted, virtuous dames,
Tied up in godly laces,
Before ye gie poor Frailty names,
Suppose a change o’ cases:
A dear- lov’d lad, convenience snug,
A treach’rous inclination-
But, let me whisper i’ your lug,
Ye’re aiblins nae temptation.
Then gently scan your brother man,
Still gentler sister woman;
Though they may gang a kennin wrang,
To step aside is human:
One point must still be greatly dark,
The moving why they do it;
And just as lamely can ye mark
How far perhaps they rue it.
Who made the heart, ’tis He alone
Decidedly can try us:
He knows each chord, its various tone,
Each spring, its various bias;
Then at the balance let’s be mute,
We never can adjust it;
What’s done we partly may compute,
But know not what’s resisted.”
Robert Burns.
Feel the Burns.
Islander.