A Ten Parter: this History is written in ten chapters of ten verses. Each chapter is, roughly, devoted to a particular time, period or event which, in the writer’s opinion most influenced the character, condition and philosophy of a Scot.
The language is the language of the street, the idiom in which the writer can best truly express his emotions.
This History could be regarded as an impertinence. This would however, be of miniscule proportion when compared with the gigantic humiliations and degradations inflicted on the Scottish people by their arrogant overseers. (Edinburgh January 1st, 1989)
Part I: In the Beginning
As oan its Poles it daily birled
An roon the Sun in orbit curled
The virgin, unsuspecting world
Became the place,
Where God’s Creative Plan unfurled
The Human Race.
Up frae the swamps o mud an slime
That wis the world in ancient time
He caused a crawlin fish tae climb
Oot oan the lan,
Tae there evolve as beast sublime
An cawed it Man.
But Man, an Ape withoot a tail,
Imprisoned in his earthly jail
Withoot a freend tae share his bail
Could no survive,
An God could see Creation fail
Tae stey alive.
Hooever, God, no easy beat
Or forced frae kitchen wi the heat,
Tae knuckle doon ab’low defeat
Then racked His brain,
Oan hoo tae make His Man complete
Tae try again.
An God saw, in His plan’s review,
That Man himself wis yin too few
An frae that yin He mun make two
Whae wid entwine,
An tween them then wid life renew
Thus, workin tae a simple plan
That Adam, as He cawed the man,
Wis shairly shair tae understand,
He fashioned Eve,
Wi pairts that wid Man’s pleasure fan
An life conceive.
Hooever, Adam, noo content
Tae live the life that God haud meant
When frae his rib His Eve wis rent,
F’und pleasure brief,
For oan the pairt he wis intent
She’d hung a leaf.
Noo leafs are easy brushed aside
Exposin pairts they’re meant tae hide
But principles, they ayeweys bide
An winnae leave,
Especially when Adam’s bride
Wis yin like Eve.
Thus Adam, first o aw his kind
Wis also first oan Earth tae find,
Nae matter hoo he’d curse an blind
Or cudgels wield,
A woman whae’d made up her mind
Wid never yield.
But God haud seen the serpent rise
Atween the space in Adam’s thighs
An gerred Eve pause an realise
Though she haud won,
Tae gie in no wis council wise
Thus life begun.
Scotland Forever: A History in 10 Parts