Scottish Poetry Selection
- The Return (A Piper's Vaunting)

Here is a short poem by Pittendrigh Macgillivray (1856-1938) about some of the symbols of Scotland.


The Return (A Piper's Vaunting)

Och hey! for the splendour of tartans!
And hey for the dirk and the targe!
The race that was hard as the Spartans
Shall return again to the charge:

Shall come back again to the heather,
Like eagles, with beak and with claws
To take and to scatter for ever
The Sasennach thieves and their laws.

Och, then, for the bonnet and feather!
The pipe and its vaunting clear:
Och, then, for the glens and the heather!
And all that the Gael holds dear.

Meaning of unusual words:
targe=shield

Return to the Index of Scottish Poetry Selection



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