The Buchan sangster/The Hare Amo' the Corn

by John Longmuir

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THE HARE AMO’ THE CORN.

Tune—"The Brier Bush."

It’s braw to view the Simmer fields,
In gowan’d robes o’ green,
An’ sweet’s the smell the meadow yields,
When scythes are sweepin’ clean:
But corn is better far than girse,
An’ stooks than colls o’ hay;
Yet flocks o’ bleaters yearly birze
Our bairns frae burn an’ brae.

It’s braw to see the antler’d deer
Aside the cauler wall,
Or count them o’ the sky-line clear,
An’ hear their distant call;
But fairer far than hunters’ hut,
Are hames o’ young an’ auld,
That welcome caul’ an’ hunger but,
An’ rear the fair and bauld.

It’s braw to see the hirplin’ hare,
When dews begin to fa’,
Upon her hunkers rise an’ stare,
As by the corn ye ca’;
She glints wi’ gloamin’ frae the wood,
Her thift by law’s nae vice;
But fu should farmers rear her food,
An’ lairds aye pouch her price?

It’s braw to mark the stalks o’ bear
Shoot up their awny head,
An’ blythesome Hope prepare to shear,
An’ bake her daily bread;
But sweep the land o’ lazy drones,
Their brew-house and their stills;
Lest weary Labour’s halesome scones
Be turned to deadly gills.