Robert Service: "A Song for Kilts"!

[macwilkin]

Fellow kilties,

I just re-discovered this Robert Service poem, A Song for Kilts, in a biography, "On the Trail of Robert Service". Service, although born in England, was raised in Killwinning, and wrote several poems about Scots & Scotland, including "The Haggis of Private McPhee" and "The Ballad of How MacPherson held the floor".

This particular piece should be recited more often at Scottish functions!

A Song For Kilts
Robert 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!

Yours "In Service"!

Todd

[GMan]

Thank you Todd, I forgot all about Service's kilting what a pleasant reminder.

[Kiltedmusiclover]

What a great poem. Thanks for sharing it Todd.
I have already emailed it to several friends.

[Plastic Paddy]

Just brilliant... Thanks Todd.

Slainte,

Tobie

[T90 Tim]

Thanks Todd, very inspiring.

I love his "Call of the Yukon", but unfortunately am unfamiliar with his other works.

[Graham]

That's great Todd, I've ever seen that before. Is there a tune that it is set to?

[Alaskan Celt]

[macwilkin]

Graham,

As far as I know, The Song of the Kilt is not set to music.

Here is "The Ballad of How MacPherson Held the Floor", as well as a nice biography:

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

I think we read "The Cremation of Sam McGee" in High School; I know we read "To a Louse" and "To a Mouse" by Oor Rab!

Burns, Service & Kipling -- my "trinity" of favourite poets!

T.

[Alaskan Celt]

[macwilkin]

Mine too. Along with Jack London, I think they had a greater influence on my learning to read than my elementary school teachers. (Truth be known I still read Riki Tiki Tavi at least once a year...maybe I need to grow up)

Jack London was always one of my favourits as well -- always loved "The Call of the Wild".

My grandfather was in India during the Second World War, and he gave me my love of all things Indian because of his stories -- hence, my love of Kipling.

T.