To a Louse - Frederick Worlock

Ha whare ye gaun ye crowlin' ferlie

Your impudence protects you sairly

I canna say but ye strunt rarely

Owre gauze and lace

Tho' faith I fear ye dine but sparely

On sic a place

Ye ugly creepin' blastit wonner

Detested shunned by saunt an' sinner

How daur ye set your fit upon her

Sae fine a lady

Gae somewhere else and seek your dinner

On some poor body

Swith in some beggar's haffet squattle

There ye may creep and sprawl and sprattle

Wi' ither kindred jumpin cattle

In shoals and nations

Whare horn or bane ne'er daur unsettle

Your thick plantations

Now haud ye there ye're out o' sight

Below the fatt'rels snug an' tight

Na faith ye yet ye'll no be right

Till ye've got on it

The vera tapmost towering height

O' Miss's bonnet

My sooth right bauld ye set your nose out

As plump an' grey as onie grozet

O for some rank mercurial rozet

Or fell red smeddum

I'd gie ye sic a hearty dose o't

Wad dress your droddum

I wad na been surprised to spy

You on an auld wife's flainen toy

Or aiblins some bit duddie boy

On's wyliecoat

But Miss's fine Lunardi fie

How daur ye do't

O Jenny dinna toss your head

An' set your beauties a' abread

Ye little ken what cursed speed

The blastie's makin'

Thae winks and finger-ends I dread

Are notice takin'

O wad some Power the giftie gie us

To see oursels as others see us

It wad frae monie a blunder free us

An' foolish notion

What airs in dress an' gait wad lea'e us

And ev'n Devotion