We are looking at 2 poems in primary 5, Oor Wullie and Tae a Moose. Choose the one you prefer and try and learn it off by heart.
Oor Wullie
Fair fa’ your rosy-cheekit face,
Your muckle buits, wi’ broken lace,
Although you’re always in disgrace,
An’ get your spanks,
In all our hearts ye have your place,
Despite your pranks.
Your towsy heid, your dungarees,
Your wee snub nose, your dirty knees,
Your knack o’ seeming tae displease
Your Ma an’ Pa.
We dinna care a tuppenny sneeze
We think you’re braw.
You’re wee, an’ nae twa ways aboot it,
You’re wise, wi’ very few tae doot it,
You’re wild, there’s nane that wad dispute it,
Around the toon. But maist o a’ ye are reputit
A lauchin’ loon.
Weel-kent, weel-liked, you’re aye the same,
Tae Scots abroad and Scots at hame.
North, south, east, west, your weel-won fame
Shall never sully.
We’ll aye salute that couthie name:
Oor Wullie.
To a Mouse,
on Turning Her Up in Her Nest With the Plough, November, 1785
by Robert Burns
Wee, sleekit, cowrin, tim’rous beastie,
O, what a panic’s in thy breastie!
Thou need na start awa sae hasty,
Wi’ bickering brattle!
I wad be laith to rin an’ chase thee,
Wi’ murd’ring pattle!
I’m truly sorry man’s dominion,
Has broken nature’s social union,
An’ justifies that ill opinion,
Which makes thee startle
At me, thy poor, earth-born companion,
An’ fellow-mortal!
I doubt na, whiles, but thou may thieve;
What then? Poor beastie, thou maun live!
A daimen icker in a thrave
‘S a sma’ request;
I’ll get a blessin wi’ the lave,
An’ never miss’t!
Thy wee bit housie, too, in ruin!
It’s silly wa’s the win’s are strewin!
An’ naething, now, to big a new ane,
O’ foggage green!
An’ bleak December’s winds ensuin,
Baith snell an’ keen!
Thou saw the fields laid bare an’ waste,
An’ weary winter comin fast,
An’ cozie here, beneath the blast,
Thou thought to dwell-
Till crash! the cruel coulter past
Out thro’ thy cell.
Thy wee bit heap o’ leaves an’ stibble,
Has cost thee mony a weary nibble!
Now thou’s turn’d out, for a’ thy trouble,
But house or hald,
To thole the winter’s sleety dribble,
An’ cranreuch cauld!
But, Mousie, thou art no thy-lane,
In proving foresight may be vain;
The best-laid schemes o’ mice an’ men
Gang aft agley,
An’ lea’e us nought but grief an’ pain,
For promis’d joy!
Still thou art blest, compar’d wi’ me
The present only toucheth thee:
But, Och! I backward cast my e’e.
On prospects drear!
An’ forward, tho’ I canna see,
I guess an’ fear!
