Wi gnawing vengeance,
Tearing my nerves wi bitter pang,
Like racking engines!
A' down my beard the slavers trickle,
I throw the wee stools o'er the mickle.
While round the fire the giglets keckle,
To see me loup.
An raving mad, I wish a heckle
Were i' their doup!
When fevers burn, or ague freezes,
Rheumatics gnaw, or colic squeezes,
Our neebors sympathise to ease us,
Wi pitying moan;
But thee! - thou hell o a' diseases -
They mock our groan!
Of a' the numerous human dools -
Ill-hairsts, daft bargains, cutty-stools,
Or worthy frien's laid i' the mools,
Sad sight to see!
The tricks o knaves, or fash o fools -
Thou bear'st the gree!
Whare'er that place be priests ca' Hell,
Whare a' the tones o misery yell,
An ranked plagues their numbers tell,
In dreadfu raw,
Thou, Toothache, surely bear'st the bell,
Amang them a'!
O thou grim, mischief-making chiel,
That gars the notes o discord squeel,
Till human kind aft dance a reel
In gore, a shoe-thick,
Gie a' the faes o Scotland's weal
A towmond's toothache!
Meaning of unusual words:
stang=sting
lug=ear
twang=twinge
slavers=saliva
mickle=armchair
giglets keckle=girls cackle
loup=jump
heckle=comb with steel teeth for dressing flax and hemp
doup=backside
dools=woes
Ill-hairsts=bad harvests
daft=mad
cutty-stools=stool of repentance on which offendors sat in church
mools=crumbling earth
fash=annoyance
bear'st the gree=takes the prize
raw=row
chiel=fellow, child
gars=makes
gie=give
faes=foes
towmond=twelve month's
