Tragic Glory
There’s naucht on a’ the planet
Like a tale o’ bloody woe
An’ Scots in stane an’ granite
Huv carved legends which still grow.
Auld Scotland has a history,
And a storied past it be.
Part fact, part celtic mystery,
‘Boot a struggle tae be free.
Calgacus and Agricola
Faced off in the Cairngorms
When the Caledonian warriors
Faced the first o’ this land’s storms.
Northumbrians and Pictish
Waged their years o’ conflict then
Till Northumbria were routed
And sent reelin’ doon the glen.
At Largs they battled Vikings,
When the land couldnae be bought,
Then the payments stopped by Scots’ kings
O’er the things for which they fought.
At Dunbar Longshanks brought conquest,
Wae his avaricious ee,
Yet the Scots wuild prove the strongest
When, wae Bruce, they’d ‘do or dee’.
Queen Mary wis a pleasure,
Aw the poets did decree,
But her son, and greatest treasure,
Had England on bended knee.
Tak me now untae Culloden
Where thon Jacobites were fell.
Naw for Scotland’s pride, like Flodden,
But seduced by Charlie’s spell.
And on then it continued –
Brave Scots dyin’ in the sands,
As they strained their very sinews
For empire, in foreign lands.
But the story isnae finished
And the passion hasnae died.
Auld Scotland’s been diminished
But it once again shall rise.
Like the weavers breakin’ their backs,
Or the workies on the Clyde,
Or the rebels ‘gainst the poll tax
Tossin’ Maggie tae one side.
We are born o’ insurrection
And o’ love for humankind,
And the ‘Great British’ direction?
This is naw how we’re defined.
Woe betide shuild they ignore us,
Graspin’ promises and pride,
And oor hearts and heids in chorus
Will rejoice when Scots decide.
For a new battle enfolds us.
Wan that’s fought wae words, naw brawn,
And in taverns now we discuss
How tae flee this Tory con
O’ a union that’s naw workin’-
So mauny folk dae say.
There’s a fetid shadow lurkin’
Till oor ‘independence day’.