Here’s a challenge.<\/p>\n
The Flock in the Firth<\/strong><\/p>\n As Eh cam owre the Forth rail brig<\/p>\n Eh saw frae oot o Fife<\/p>\n a farrachin o starlins’ trig<\/p>\n as the thochts o ane waukrife<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Lyk sheelock fae a thrashin mill<\/p>\n they mirlieit the nicht<\/p>\n atween thi brigs, as tho ate fill ut<\/p>\n wi wan shammade o flicht<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Lyk a sark that’s bealin i thi breeze<\/p>\n this ram stam scarnach oan<\/p>\n a norrie birled wi siccan ease<\/p>\n as a skatir by’ur lone.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Ut seemd as tho a michty scroosh<\/p>\n o sparlins fae thi flair<\/p>\n o Forth hud fur a skirr gead whoosh<\/p>\n intil thi deeps o air<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Ut seemd as tho a page o wurds<\/p>\n at sum parafflin nemm,<\/p>\n has aa at wance been cheengd tae burds<\/p>\n an werr marginin thi faem<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Thi mirk held mair nor myriads<\/p>\n aa sherrickin the stream,<\/p>\n in spirlin splores, in sklents, in scads,<\/p>\n lyk Hitchcock’s wuddendreme<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Ly Egypt’s kas<\/em>, or Dante’s braw<\/p>\n adulters in Hell,<\/p>\n sae mony starlins i thi blaw<\/p>\n o Scoatlan rose and fell<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Eh slid ablow this skavie flock<\/p>\n and ontae Fife’s blank page,<\/p>\n Eh wrote: they are thi parrymauk<\/p>\n o starnies in a rage.<\/p>\n W.S. Herbert<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n farrachin<\/em>: bustling, waukrife<\/em>: unable to sleep; sheelock<\/em>: chaff; mirlieit<\/em>: speckled; shammade<\/em>; lacework; sark<\/em>: shirt; bealin<\/em>: moving agitatedly; ram stam<\/em>: head strong; scarnach<\/em>: great number of people or things; norrie<\/em>: whim; birld<\/em>; spun; by ‘ur lone:<\/em> by herself; scroosh<\/em>: disreputable horad; sparlin<\/em>: smelt( a freshwater fish found in the Forth and the Tay); skirr<\/em>: jape; parafflin<\/em>: flourishing, as in the end of a signature; marginin<\/em>: marking the margin; mirk<\/em>: dark; sherrickin<\/em>: amassing to abuse:\u00a0 spirling splores<\/em>: lively adventures; sklents<\/em>: angles; scads<\/em>: in great quantities; wuddendreme<\/em>: nightmare; skavie<\/em>: ruching; parrymauk<\/em>: double; starnies<\/em>: stars (starn also means ‘starling’).<\/p>\n The Poetry of Birds, ed. Simon Armitage and Tim Dee, Penguin Books 2011.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Here’s a challenge. The Flock in the Firth As Eh cam owre the Forth rail brig Eh saw frae oot o Fife a farrachin o starlins’ trig as the thochts o ane waukrife Lyk sheelock fae a thrashin mill they mirlieit the nicht atween thi brigs, as tho ate fill ut wi wan shammade […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28,18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4104","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-birds-wildlife","category-poetry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/banthewasp.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4104","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/banthewasp.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/banthewasp.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/banthewasp.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/banthewasp.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4104"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/banthewasp.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4104\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/banthewasp.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4104"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/banthewasp.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4104"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/banthewasp.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4104"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}