Address to a Haggis

From Robert Burns (Wee Guide)

Burns Night / Burns Supper (25 January)

Fair fa’ your honest, sonsie face,

Great chieftain o’ the pudding race!

Aboon them a’ ye tak your place, 

Painch, tripe, or thairm:

Weel are ye wordy o’ a grace

As lang’s my arm.

The groaning trencher there ye fill,

Your hurdies like a distant hill,

Your pin wad help to mend a mill 

In time o’ need

While thro’ your pores the dews distil

Like amber bead.

His knife see rustic Labour dight,

An’ cut you up wi’ ready sleight,

Trenching your gushing entrails bright,

Like ony ditch;

And then, O what a glorious sight,

Warm-reekin’, rich!

Then, horn for horn, they stretch an’ strive:

Deil tak the hindmost! on they drive,

Till a’ their weel-swall’d kytes belyve,

Are bent like drums;

Then auld Guidman, maist like to rive,

‘Bethankit!’ hums.

Is there that owre his French ragout

Or olio that was staw a sow,

Or fricasse wad mak her spew

Wi’ perfect sconner,

Looks down wi’ sneering, scornfu’ view

On sic dinner?

Poor devil! see him owre his trash,

As feckless as a wither’d rash,

His spindle shank, a guid whip-lash,

His nieve a nit;

Thro’ bloody flood or field to dash,

O how unfit!

But mark the Rustic, haggis fed,

The trembling earth resounds his tread.

Clap in his walie nieve a blade,

He’ll mak it whissle;

An’ legs an’ arms, an’ heads will sned,

Like taps o’ thrissle.

Ye Pow’rs wha mak mankind your care,

And dish them out their bill o’ fare,

Auld Scotland wants nae skinking ware

That jaups in luggies;

But, if ye wish her grateful’ prayer,

Gie her a haggis!

Burns Night / Burns Supper (25 January)