- IT'S GEY AN' EASY SPIERIN', says the beggar-wife to me.

O, I wad like to ken - to the beggar-wife says I -
Gin death's as shure to men as killin' is to kye,
Why God has filled the yearth sae fu' o' tasty things to
pree.
- IT'S GEY AN' EASY SPIERIN', says the beggar-wife to me.

O, I wad like to ken - to the beggar wife says I -
The reason o' the cause an' the wherefore o' the why,
Wi' mony anither riddle brings the tear into my e'e.
- IT'S GEY AN' EASY SPIERIN', says the beggar-wife to me.


VII - THE BLAST - 1875


It's rainin'. Weet's the gairden sod,
Weet the lang roads whaur gangrels plod -
A maist unceevil thing o' God
In mid July -
If ye'll just curse the sneckdraw, dod!
An' sae wull I!

He's a braw place in Heev'n, ye ken,
An' lea's us puir, forjaskit men
Clamjamfried in the but and ben
He ca's the earth -
A wee bit inconvenient den
No muckle worth;