Tell me the auld, auld story
O' hoo the Union brocht
Puir Scotland into being
As a country worth a thocht.
England, frae whom a; blessings flow
What could we dae withoot ye? do
Then dinna threep it doon oor throats force
As gin we e'er could doot ye!
My feelings lang wi' gratitude
Ha'e been sae sairly harrowed
That dod! I think it's time
The claith was owre the parrot! cloth
Tell me o' Scottish enterprise
And canniness and thrift,
And hoo we're baith less Scots and mair
Than ever under George the fifth,
And hoo to 'wider interests'
Oor ain we sacrifice
And yet tine naething by it lose
As aye the parrot cries.
Syne gie's a chance to think it oot then
Aince we're a' weel awaur o't,
For, losh, I think it's time
The claith was owre the parrot!
Tell me o' love o' country
Content to see't decay,
And ony ither paradox
Ye think o' by the way.
I doot it needs a Hegel
Sic opposites to fuse;
Oor education's failin'
And canna gie's the views
That were peculiar to us
Afore our vision narrowed
And gar'd us think it time made
The claith was owre the parrot!
A parrot's weel eneuch at times enough
But whiles we'd leifer hear rather
A blackbird or a mavis song-thrush
Singin' fu' blythe and clear.
Fetch ony native Scottish bird
Frae the eagle to the wren,
And faith! you'd hear a different sang
Frae this painted foreigner's then.
The marine that brocht it owre
Believed its every word
- But we're a' deeved to daith deafened
Wi' his infernal bird.
It's possible that Scotland yet
May hear its ain voice speak
If only we can silence
This endless chatterin' beak.
The blessing wi' the black
Selvedge is the clout! the Treaty of Union of 1707
It's silenced Scotland lang eneuch,
Gi'e England turn aboot.
For the puir bird needs its rest -
Wha else'll be the waur o't? worse
And it's lang past the time
The claith was owre the parrot.
And gin that disna dae, lads,
We e'en maun draw its neck must
And heist its body on a stick hoist
A' ither pests to check.
I'd raither keep't alive, and whiles
Let bairns keek in and hear
What the Balliol accent used to be both a college at Oxford and a Scots king
Frae the Predominant Pairtner here!
- But save to please the bairns
I'd absolutely bar it
For fegs, it's aye high time
The claith was owre the parrot!