Scots poem of the month - November 2006

The Siller Swan The siller swan is deid – No Solomon in aa his glory wore Sic claes as his ti ripe the glaur, nae queen O Sheba gaed sae bienly in her state Ti freight the heavy watters, nae sweet ile O Sharon’s rose gart fyle his sheenin dress, Nae floatin lily’s tresses snarled his feet, Nae gleet o pearl ootblent his leevin ee. Bleck dregs o sump an vat anynted him Wi kenmarks o grim homage, man-wrocht threid Unfreed his wabs, a pirnfu starker spun Than silk wun his lang craig, his forfeit wings Wore clagging foulness thet his river hame Brocht frae the wame o warkrooms, an his slaw Deid-thraw fed fousome on a fisher’s lead. The leevin watter fendit, floated prood His bouk upon the flude, gied hoose and maet In lairdly spate, nae wadset socht but leave Ti reive his life an cairry venomed daith intil hs mou, did skaith on his fair hide, On lippin tide gart rot him quick an, deid, In weed an wastry beached his droukit ket. The siller swan is deid. By Elaine Morton from Lallans Nummer 58, Ware 2001. Poem supplied courtesy of the Scottish Poetry Library

About the poet Wha hasnae been scunnert by the fylit corp o a bird, ettering by the watter’s lip in the wrack-line o plestics an bottles, nylon string an ily unidentifiables? Wha, haein sicht o the nestier outcomes o the Industrial Revolution, hasnae taen tent o the truth that, where every prospect pleases, only man is vile? Elaine Morton has been scribbling on and off for most of her life and would like to thank the Scottish Arts Council for using this poem. Her youth was misspent on study of languages and music, her day-job is instrumental teacher and music teacher. She started to write wholly in Scots in 1998, inspired first by the rich idiolects of her friends in West Lothian and later in East Lothian.   For instance, she is ever indebted to the man who judged a photo finish between two rival dancers with the words ‘Ye’se are that close a pail o watter wouldnae pairt ye.’    More respectable influences were John Galt and Robert Louis Stevenson.   A prolix bundle of unpublished material awaits posterity, or the council cowp.

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