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Such a Parcel of Rogues in a Nation!
TUNE–“Such a Parcel of Rogues in a Nation.”
I
FAREWEEL to a’ our Scottish fame, |
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Fareweel our ancient glory; |
| Fareweel even to the Scottish name, |
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Sae fam’d in martial story! |
| Now Sark rins o’er the Solway sands, |
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And Tweed rins to the ocean, |
| To mark where England’s province stands– |
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Such a parcel of rogues in a nation! |
| II |
| What force or guile could not subdue, |
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Through many warlike ages, |
| Is wrought now by a coward few, |
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For hireling traitors’ wages. |
| The English steel we could disdain, |
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Secure in valor’s station; |
| But English gold has been our bane, |
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Such a parcel of rogues in a nation! |
| III |
| O would, or I had seen the day |
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That treason thus could sell us, |
| My auld grey head had lain in clay, |
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Wi’ Bruce and loyal Wallace! |
| But pith and power, till my last hour, |
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I’ll mak’ this declaration; |
| We’re bought and sold for English gold: |
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Such a parcel of rogues in a nation! |
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The Works of Robert Burns; with a complete life of the poet, and an essay on his genius and character, by Professor Wilson. In Two Volumes, Vol. I. Blackie and Son: Frederick Street Glasgow; South College Street, Edinburgh; and Warwick Square, London. MDCCCLIX, p.48. |
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