A Drunk Man Looks At
The Thistle

BY THE SAME AUTHOR.

• SANGSCHAW. (1925.) 5/-
• PENNY WHEEP. (1926.) 5/-

In Preparation.

• TO CIRCUMJACK CENCRASTUS.

A Drunk Man Looks At
The Thistle

BY
HUGH M’DIARMID
AUTHOR OF ‘SANGSCHAW,’ ETC.

Vast imbecile mentality of those

Who cannot tell a thistle from a rose,

This is for others.

—Sacheverell Sitwell.

WILLIAM BLACKWOOD & SONS LTD.
EDINBURGH AND LONDON
1926

Printed in Great Britain All Rights reserved

TO
F. G. SCOTT.

Can ratt-rime and ragments o’ quenry

And recoll o’ Gillha’ requite

Your faburdoun, figuration, and gemmell,

And prick-sangs’ delight?

Tho’ you’ve cappilowed me in the reapin’

—And yours was a bursten kirn tae!—

Yet you share your advantage wi’ me

In the end o’ the day.

And my flytin’ and sclatrie sall be

Wi’ your fantice and mocage entwined

As the bauch Earth is wi’ the lift

Or fate wi’ mankind!

AUTHOR’S NOTE.

This gallimaufry is dedicated to my friend, Francis George Scott, the composer, who suggested it, and to whom, during the course of writing it, I have been further greatly indebted for co-operative suggestions and for some of the most penetrating and comprehensive of modern European criticism.

I would gratefully acknowledge, too, the assistance I have received from my friend, Dr Pittendrigh Macgillivray, and from my wife, in the revision of proofs.

To the Editor of ‘The Glasgow Herald’ I have to tender the customary acknowledgements for his kindness in allowing me to republish here certain portions of my poem which originally appeared in his columns.

Drunkenness has a logic of its own with which, even in these decadent days, I believe a sufficient minority of my countrymen remain au fait. I would, however, take the liberty of counselling the others, who have no personal experience or sympathetic imagination to guide them, to be chary of attaching any exaggerated importance, in relation to my book as a whole, to such inadvertent reflections of their own sober minds as they may from time to time—as in a distorting mirror—detect in these pages, and of attempting, in, no doubt, a spirit of real helpfulness, to confer, on the basis of these, a species of intelligibility foreign to its nature, upon my poem. It would have been only further misleading these good folks, therefore, if I had (as, arbitrarily enough at best, I might have done) divided my poem into sections or in other ways supplied any of those “hand-rails” which raise false hopes in the ingenuous minds of readers whose rational intelligences are all too insusceptible of realising the enormities of which “highbrows” of my type are capable—even in Scotland.

I would suggest, on the other hand, if I may, that they should avoid subtleties and simply persist in the pretence that my “synthetic Scots” presents insuperable difficulties to understanding, while continuing to espouse with all the impressiveness at their command the counter-claims of “sensible poetry.”

The whole thing must, of course, be pronounced more Boreali.

H. M’D.

A DRUNK MAN LOOKS AT THE THISTLE.

I amna’ fou’ sae muckle as tired—deid dune.

It’s gey and hard wark’ coupin’ gless for gless

Wi’ Cruivie and Gilsanquhar and the like,

And I’m no’ juist as bauld as aince I wes.

The elbuck fankles in the coorse o’ time,

The sheckle’s no’ sae souple, and the thrapple

Grows deef and dour: nae langer up and doun

Gleg as a squirrel speils the Adam’s apple.

Forbye, the stuffie’s no’ the real Mackay.

The sun’s sel’ aince, as sune as ye began it,

Riz in your vera saul: but what keeks in

Noo is in truth the vilest “saxpenny planet.”

And as the worth’s gane doun the cost has risen.

Yin canna thow the cockles o’ yin’s hert

Wi’oot ha’en’ cauld feet noo, jalousin’ what

The wife’ll say (I dinna blame her fur’t).

It’s robbin’ Peter to pey Paul at least....

And a’ that’s Scotch aboot it is the name,

Like a’ thing else ca’d Scottish nooadays

—A’ destitute o’ speerit juist the same.

(To prove my saul is Scots I maun begin

Wi’ what’s still deemed Scots and the folk expect,

And spire up syne by visible degrees

To heichts whereo’ the fules ha’e never recked.

But aince I get them there I’ll whummle them

And souse the craturs in the nether deeps,

—For it’s nae choice, and ony man s’ud wish

To dree the goat’s weird tae as weel’s the sheep’s!)

Heifetz in tartan, and Sir Harry Lauder!

Whaur’s Isadora Duncan dancin’ noo?

Is Mary Garden in Chicago still

And Duncan Grant in Paris—and me fou’?

Sic transit gloria Scotia—a’ the floo’ers

O’ the Forest are wede awa’. (A blin’ bird’s nest

Is aiblins biggin’ in the thistle tho’?...

And better blin’ if’ts brood is like the rest!)

You canna gang to a Burns supper even

Wi’oot some wizened scrunt o’ a knock-knee

Chinee turns roon to say, “Him Haggis—velly goot!”

And ten to wan the piper is a Cockney.

No’ wan in fifty kens a wurd Burns wrote

But misapplied is a’body’s property,

And gin there was his like alive the day

They’d be the last a kennin’ haund to gie—

Croose London Scotties wi’ their braw shirt fronts

And a’ their fancy freen’s, rejoicin’

That similah gatherings in Timbuctoo,

Bagdad—and Hell, nae doot—are voicin’

Burns’ sentiments o’ universal love,

In pidgin’ English or in wild-fowl Scots,

And toastin’ ane wha’s nocht to them but an

Excuse for faitherin’ Genius wi’ their thochts.

A’ they’ve to say was aften said afore

A lad was born in Kyle to blaw aboot.

What unco fate mak’s him the dumpin’-grun’

For a’ the sloppy rubbish they jaw oot?

Mair nonsense has been uttered in his name

Than in ony’s barrin’ liberty and Christ.

If this keeps spreedin’ as the drink declines,

Syne turns to tea, wae’s me for the Zeitgeist!

Rabbie, wad’st thou wert here—the warld hath need,

And Scotland mair sae, o’ the likes o’ thee!

The whisky that aince moved your lyre’s become

A laxative for a’ loquacity.

O gin they’d stegh their guts and haud their wheesht

I’d thole it, for “a man’s a man,” I ken,

But though the feck ha’e plenty o’ the “a’ that,”

They’re nocht but zoologically men.

I’m haverin’, Rabbie, but ye understaun’

It gets my dander up to see your star

A bauble in Babel, banged like a saxpence

’Twixt Burbank’s Baedeker and Bleistein’s cigar.

There’s nane sae ignorant but think they can

Expatiate on you, if on nae ither.

The sumphs ha’e ta’en you at your wird, and, fegs!

The foziest o’ them claims to be a—Brither!

Syne “Here’s the cheenge”—the star o’ Rabbie Burns.

Sma’ cheenge, “Twinkle, Twinkle.” The memory slips

As G. K. Chesterton heaves up to gi’e

“The Immortal Memory” in a huge eclipse,

Or somebody else as famous if less fat.

You left the like in Embro’ in a scunner

To booze wi’ thieveless cronies sic as me.

I’se warrant you’d shy clear o’ a’ the hunner

Odd Burns’ Clubs tae, or ninety-nine o’ them,

And haud your birthday in a different kip

Whaur your name isna’ ta’en in vain—as Christ

Gied a’ Jerusalem’s Pharisees the slip,

—Christ wha’d ha’e been Chief Rabbi gin he’d lik’t!—

Wi’ publicans and sinners to forgether,

But, losh! the publicans noo are Pharisees,

And I’m no’ shair o’ maist the sinners either.

But that’s aside the point! I’ve got fair waun’ert.

It’s no’ that I’m sae fou’ as juist deid dune,

And dinna ken as muckle’s whaur I am

Or hoo I’ve come to sprawl here ’neth the mune

That’s it! It isna me that’s fou’ at a’,

But the fu’ mune, the doited jade, that’s led

Me fer agley, or ’mogrified the warld.

—For a’ I ken I’m safe in my ain bed.

Jean! Jean! Gin she’s no’ here it’s no’ oor bed,

Or else I’m dreamin’ deep and canna wauken,

But it’s a fell queer dream if this is no’

A real hillside—and thae things thistles and bracken!

It’s hard wark haud’n by a thocht worth ha’en’

And harder speakin’t, and no’ for ilka man;

Maist Thocht’s like whisky—a thoosan’ under proof,

And a sair price is pitten on’t even than.

As Kirks wi’ Christianity ha’e dune,

Burns’ Clubs wi’ Burns—wi’ a’thing it’s the same,

The core o’ ocht is only for the few,

Scorned by the mony, thrang wi’ts empty name.

And a’ the names in History mean nocht

To maist folk but “ideas o’ their ain,”

The vera opposite o’ onything

The Deid ’ud awn gin they cam’ back again.

A greater Christ, a greater Burns, may come.

The maist they’ll dae is to gi’e bigger pegs

To folly and conceit to hank their rubbish on.

They’ll cheenge folks’ talk but no their natures, fegs!

I maun feed frae the common trough ana’

Whaur a’ the lees o’ hope are jumbled up;

While centuries like pigs are slorpin’ owre’t

Sall my wee ’oor be cryin’: “Let pass this cup?”

In wi’ your gruntle then, puir wheengin’ saul,

Lap up the ugsome aidle wi’ the lave,

What gin it’s your ain vomit that you swill

And frae Life’s gantin’ and unfaddomed grave?

I doot I’m geylies mixed, like Life itsel’,

But I was never ane that thocht to pit

An ocean in a mutchkin. As the haill’s

Mair than the pairt sae I than reason yet.

I dinna haud the warld’s end in my heid

As maist folk think they dae; nor filter truth

In fishy gills through which its tides may poor

For ony animalculæ forsooth.

I lauch to see my crazy little brain

—And ither folks’—tak’n itsel’ seriously,

And in a sudden lowe o’ fun my saul

Blinks dozent as the owl I ken’t to be.

I’ll ha’e nae hauf-way hoose, but aye be whaur

Extremes meet—it’s the only way I ken

To dodge the curst conceit o’ bein’ richt

That damns the vast majority o’ men.

I’ll bury nae heid like an ostrich’s,

Nor yet believe my een and naething else.

My senses may advise me, but I’ll be

Mysel’ nae maitter what they tell’s....

I ha’e nae doot some foreign philosopher

Has wrocht a system oot to justify

A’ this: but I’m a Scot wha blin’ly follows

Auld Scottish instincts, and I winna try.

For I’ve nae faith in ocht I can explain,

And stert whaur the philosophers leave aff,

Content to glimpse its loops I dinna ettle

To land the sea serpent’s sel’ wi’ ony gaff.

Like staundin’ water in a pocket o’

Impervious clay I pray I’ll never be,

Cut aff and self-sufficient, but let reenge

Heichts o’ the lift and benmaist deeps o’ sea.

Water! Water! There was owre muckle o’t

In yonder whisky, sae I’m in deep water

(And gin I could wun hame I’d be in het,

For even Jean maun natter, natter, natter)....

And in the toon that I belang tae

—What tho’ts Montrose or Nazareth?—

Helplessly the folk continue

To lead their livin’ death!...

[1]At darknin’ hings abune the howff

A weet and wild and eisenin’ air.

Spring’s spirit wi’ its waesome sough

Rules owre the drucken stramash there.

And heich abune the vennel’s pokiness,

Whaur a’ the white-weshed cottons lie;

The Inn’s sign blinters in the mochiness,

And lood and shrill the bairnies cry.

The hauflins ’yont the burgh boonds

Gang ilka nicht, and a’ the same,

Their bonnets cocked; their bluid that stounds

Is playin’ at a fine auld game.

And on the lochan there, hauf-herted

Wee screams and creakin’ oar-locks soon’,

And in the lift, heich, hauf-averted,

The mune looks owre the yirdly roon’.

And ilka evenin’, derf and serious

(Jean ettles nocht o’ this, puir lass),

In liquor, raw yet still mysterious,

A’e freend’s aye mirrored in my glass.

Ahint the sheenin’ coonter gruff

Thrang barmen ding the tumblers doun

“In vino veritas” cry rough

And reid-een’d fules that in it droon.

But ilka evenin’ fey and fremt

(Is it a dream nae wauk’nin’ proves?)

As to a trystin’-place undreamt,

A silken leddy darkly moves.

Slow gangs she by the drunken anes,

And lanely by the winnock sits;

Frae’r robes, atour the sunken anes,

A rooky dwamin’ perfume flits.

Her gleamin’ silks, the taperin’

O’ her ringed fingers, and her feathers

Move dimly like a dream wi’in,

While endless faith aboot them gethers.

I seek, in this captivity,

To pierce the veils that darklin’ fa’

—See white clints slidin’ to the sea,

And hear the horns o’ Elfland blaw.

I ha’e dark secrets’ turns and twists,

A sun is gi’en to me to haud,

The whisky in my bluid insists,

And spiers my benmaist history, lad.

And owre my brain the flitterin’

O’ the dim feathers gangs aince mair,

And, faddomless, the dark blue glitterin’

O’ twa een in the ocean there.

My soul stores up this wealth unspent,

The key is safe and nane’s but mine.

You’re richt, auld drunk impenitent,

I ken it tae—the truth’s in wine!

The munelicht’s like a lookin’-glass,

The thistle’s like mysel’,

But whaur ye’ve gane, my bonnie lass.

Is mair than I can tell.

Were you a vision o’ mysel’,

Transmuted by the mellow liquor?

Neist time I glisk you in a glass,

I’se warrant I’ll mak’ siccar.

A man’s a clean contrairy sicht

Turned this way in-ootside,

And, fegs, I feel like Dr Jekyll

Tak’n guid tent o’ Mr Hyde....

Gurly thistle—hic—you canna

Daunton me wi’ your shaggy mien,

I’m sair—hic—needin’ a shave,

That’s plainly to be seen.

But what aboot it—hic—aboot it?

Mony a man’s been that afore.

It’s no’ a fact that in his lugs

A wund like this need roar!...

[2]I hae forekent ye! O I hae forekent.

The years forecast your face afore they went.

A licht I canna thole is in the lift.

I bide in silence your slow-comin’ pace.

The ends o’ space are bricht: at last—oh swift!

While terror clings to me—an unkent face!

Ill-faith stirs in me as she comes at last,

The features lang forekent ... are unforecast.

O it gangs hard wi’me, I am forspent.

Deid dreams ha’e beaten me and a face unkent

And generations that I thocht unborn

Hail the strange Goddess frae my hert’s-hert torn!...

Or dost thou mak’ a thistle o’ me, wumman? But for thee

I were as happy as the munelicht, withoot care,

But thocht o’ thee—o’ thy contempt and ire—

Turns hauf the warld into the youky thistle there,