On Royalty: © Poem by Paddy Scott Hogg

Why I agree with Robert Burns about Pomp. Patrick Scott Hogg
Cumbernauld, Scotland 1990

Let me declare it, before it is guessed,
Or used against me as treason,
I never would say that Kingship is best
For now, it's clean out of season.

My loyalties lay with plain simple truth
And not with the sceptre and crown;
My dream it has been, since days of my youth,
To see pillars of pomp pulled down.

I don't have a grudge nor envy their state
Ill-founded on exploitation;
They patronise us, and ingratiate
As though birth were the jewel of the nation.

Must I look up and admire a stranger
Or woman, I am told to respect?
What is there in Nature, our great arranger
That I must kneel, loyal subject?

No Scot alive should e'er pay a homage
Before an English King or Queen;
Remember Sir William Wallace's rage
On Falkirk's bloody fields of green!

Forgive me dear Sir, but Reason must speak:
'Royalty falls down with one flaw -
If God made rules for the strong and weak
No Queen is above His great law! '

'Thus blasphemous, Royalty usurps God
It's privileges usurp merit;
Ability falls by its corrupt rod
And power and greed run riot.'

'It's plain all these things, from the top, stem down
Lords, Ladies and titles galore:
A King is an actor, dressed like a clown
Corruption stalks from their door.'

Let me declare it, before it is guessed,
Or used against me as treason:
Royalty in man and all that is best
Are virtues stemming from Reason!