Scots Wha Hae

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Scots Wha hae wi' Wallace Bled

Scots Wha Hae is a poem/sang at wis written bi Robert Burns in 1793 tae mimic a speak gien bi Robert the Brus tae his airmy afore the Battle o Bannockburn in 1314. Tho Burns scrived the wirds, the muisic is gey auld (the tuin is Hey Tuttie Tattie that legend hauds wis played by the Scots airmy afore the battle).

The first teetle o the sang wis Robert Bruce's March To Bannockburn - that wis the teetle that it wis first kent unner, tho nou it is mair for ordinar kent as 'Scots Wha Hae'.

Scots Wha Hae is the pairty sang o the Scots National Pairty and is sung efter their conferences ilka year.

Scots Wha Hae is written in whit James Murray caas "Fancy Scotch", that is, Scots written wi English grammar.[1] In his beuk on Scots o the sooth o Scotland he says:

"Scots wha hae" is fancy Scotch - that is, it is juist the English "Scots who have," spelt as Scotch. Barbour wad hae written "Scottis at hes;" Dunbar or Douglas, "Scottis quhilkis hes;" and even Henry Charteris in the end o the saxteent century "Scottis quha hes." The vernacular is aye "Scots at haes," that Burns appearently thocht wis ungrammatical, and tharefore shapit the wirds efter a English model. A lot o the contemporar Scotch is like this: it is Scotch in spellin, English in aathing ither.

Influence o Blind Harry[eedit | eedit soorce]

The poem shaws the influence o the makar Blind Harry (kent as Blind Hary, or Henry the Minstrel an aw) as ye can see fae Harry's line:

A false usurper sinks in every foe
And liberty returns with every blow

that Burns cried "A couplet wirthy o Homer" an adaptit as:

Lay the proud usurpers low!
Tyrants fall in every foe!
Liberty's in every blow!

Wirds o the sang[eedit | eedit soorce]

'Scots, wha hae wi' Wallace bled,
Scots, wham Bruce has aften led,
Welcome tae your gory bed,
Or tae Victorie!

'Now's the day, an now's the hour:
See the front o' battle lour,
See approach proud Edward's power -
Chains an Slaverie!

'Wha will be a traitor knave?
Wha will fill a coward's grave?
Wha sae base as be a slave?
Let him turn an flee!

'Wha, for Scotland's king an law,
Freedom's sword will strongly draw,
Freeman stand, or Freeman fa',
Let him follae me!

'By Oppression's woes an pains!
By your sons in servile chains!
We will drain our dearest veins,
But they shall be free!

'Lay the proud usurpers low!
Tyrants fall in every foe!
Liberty's in every blow! -
Let us do or dee!'

Soorces[eedit | eedit soorce]

  1. Murray, James (1873). The dialect of the southern counties of Scotland: its pronunciation, grammar, and historical relations; with an appendix on the present limits of the Gaelic and lowland Scotch, and the dialectical divisions of the lowland tongue; and a linguistical map of Scotland. p. 71. Retrieved 20 Mairch 2021.