A Song For Kilts

[Southern Breeze]

I found this a while back and I've decided to post it.

A Song For Kilts

by Robert W Service


How grand the human race would be
If every man would wear a kilt,
A flirt of Tartan finery,
Instead of trousers, custom built!
Nay, do not think I speak to joke:
(You know I'm not that kind of man),
I am convinced that all men folk.
Should wear the costume of a Clan.

Imagine how it's braw and clean
As in the wind it flutters free;
And so conducive to hygiene
In its sublime simplicity.
No fool fly-buttons to adjust,—
Wi' shanks and maybe buttocks bare;
Oh chiels, just take my word on trust,
A bonny kilt's the only wear.

'Twill save a lot of siller too,
(And here a canny Scotsman speaks),
For one good kilt will wear you through
A half-a-dozen pairs of breeks.
And how it's healthy in the breeze!
And how it swings with saucy tilt!
How lassies love athletic knees
Below the waggle of a kilt!

True, I just wear one in my mind,
Since sent to school by Celtic aunts,
When girls would flip it up behind,
Until I begged for lowland pants.
But now none dare do that to me,
And so I sing with lyric lilt,—
How happier the world would be
If every male would wear a kilt!

[way2fractious]

I found this a while back and I've decided to post it.

A Song For Kilts

by Robert W Service

Sometimes this group astonishes me! I really must get more liberally educated.

Here I am, poking around in posts that got by me, and lyrics by Robert W Service pop up as kilt-related. The last verse speaks to some of the current discussion on callow youth. Now I have something to memorize as counterpoint to the Scotsman Song.

My only other memory of Robert W Service's work is the ballad called, "The Cremation of Sam Magee." It was often read to me and others of my generation by my father, while cozied up around a campfire on backpacking trips in the High Sierras of California.

Thank you, Southern Breeze, for the wakeup call.

[macwilkin]

I posted this a looong time ago! :mrgreen: I'm a bit of a Robert Service buff myself. Besides "A Song for Kilts", Service also wrote "The Ballad of How MacPherson Held the Floor", which is my favourite of his poems, and "The Haggis of Private McPhee", which is also very good.

Service, whilst born in Lancashire, lived in Scotland and always had an affection for it. Nowadays there are actually Robert Service Dinners, similar to a Burns Supper. I got invited to one in the Yukon in Whitehorse, but, alas, I couldn't go! :sad: There is also one held in Killwinning, Scotland, and there is a monument to Service there.

Cheers,

Todd

[Southern Breeze]

I didn't know it had been posted before.You can find his work here:
http://www.robertwservice.com/

[macwilkin]

I didn't know it had been posted before.You can find his work here:
http://www.robertwservice.com/

Back in June, 2004! :mrgreen: I don't think the archives go back that far!

A good article about RWS and Scotland can be found here:

http://www.electricscotland.com/poet...rt_service.htm

Yours (in Service!)

Todd

[Southern Breeze]

Back in June, 2004! :mrgreen: I don't think the archives go back that far!

A good article about RWS and Scotland can be found here:

http://www.electricscotland.com/poet...rt_service.htm

Yours (in Service!)

Todd

Thanks for the link.

[Nick]

Brilliant! Thanks for the poem!

[switchblade5984]

and now archived on the marks! thanks!

[way2fractious]

You can find his work here:
http://www.robertwservice.com/

I found this site via Google last evening. This is more fun than the internet's myriad gaming sites.

A good article about RWS and Scotland can be found here:

http://www.electricscotland.com/poe...ert_service.htm

Thanks. That is a great article.

[Pour1Malt]

I posted this a looong time ago! :mrgreen: I'm a bit of a Robert Service buff myself. Besides "A Song for Kilts", Service also wrote "The Ballad of How MacPherson Held the Floor", which is my favourite of his poems, and "The Haggis of Private McPhee", which is also very good.

Service, whilst born in Lancashire, lived in Scotland and always had an affection for it. Nowadays there are actually Robert Service Dinners, similar to a Burns Supper. I got invited to one in the Yukon in Whitehorse, but, alas, I couldn't go! :sad: There is also one held in Killwinning, Scotland, and there is a monument to Service there.

Cheers,

Todd

ai recited "The Haggis of Private McPhee" a' a Burns Supper a couple a years ago...

crackin guid poem!