Ebineezer Scrooge: A Scots Poem Version Of Charles Dickens 'a Xmas Carol' Poem by Sheena Blackhall

The Victorian era wis byordnar jeelin
Wi icicles hingin frae windaes an ceilin
Bit inside an office in thrang Lunnon toun
Wis the cauldest o chaumers in aa the warld roon

A clerk caad Bob Cratchit wis chitterin wi cauld
For Scrooge wis a maister baith crabbit an auld
Wi jist the ae coal hoastin rikk up the lum
Maister Scrooge wad grudge even a robin a crumb

Twa cheils cam roon rattlin a charity tinnie
He gied them a flee in their lugs, nae a penny
Sae fin nephew Fred, young & cheery, appeared
‘Wad ye cam tae ma pairty, dear uncle? ' he speired.
‘A pairty's for fowk that are saft in the heid
Fin yer penniless dinna beg me for yer breid! ''

The blin drift furled roon as Scrooge hytered back hame
Tae his teem, fooshty chaumer, friendless an alane
Syne tuik tae his bed tae save lichtin a lowe
Fin an eildtrich-like soun hid him scrattin his powe
The chaumer wis clunkin wi chynes bein hauled
An horror o horrors! Physog grey an bauld
Jacob Marley, frae ooto the mools latten free
Tae tell Scrooge his pairtner the weird he wad dree
The chynes Marley cairriet, his wyges in daith
For squeezin bi greed fowk fin he still drew braith

‘Three nichts in a raw, ye'll be met bi a ghaist
Takk tent o each warnin, noo I maun makk haste
Tae leave ye, for here cams the first o ma fiers.'
Wi a wheech, Yuletide Past richt disjaskit appears
Like a bairn. He takks Scrooge on a tour o yestreens
His waesome upbringin, his schulin, cauld steens
That wye on the miser's blaik hairt, syne they flit
Tae Scrooge's apprenticeship. Fezziwig's fit
Wis first in the dauncin an last tae be still
Wis there e'er sic a maister? He'd aye pour a gill
O frienship an brandy tae warm Yuletide's jeel
Even Scrooge luikin intae the past, wished him weel
The ghaist didna dauchle, he hickled Scrooge ben
Tae anither scene. Twa luvers waukin a glen.
Twis Belle, Scooge's quine that he'd wooed an betrothed
‘Yer luv's for anither since first ye proposed
Tae me. Let's agree tae makk siller yer wife
For greed hauds the tiller that steers yer new life.'

Neist meenit he's hame. Like a ceelestial strobe
Yuletide Present awytes in a braw emerald robe
‘Aa I set afore ye this nicht will cam true
Unless ye repent o yer grippiness noo'

The ghaist shaws him inno his clerk, Cratchit's hoose
An a meal that wad scarce lay doon fat on a moose
At the ingle, sits Teenie Tim, cripple an dweeble
Smaa wyges provide smaa repast fur their table
Gin a year tummles roon, there'll be nae cripple's staa
In puirtith an wint, he will dwinnle awa

Syne they wheech throw the air tae his nephew Fred's hame
There's lauchter an blitheness. An Scrooge hears his name
‘It's a peety he aywis refuses each year
Ma deid mither lued him. She'd wish he wis here.'
The ghaist though, has aged, he's grown wizzent an spare
Wi a lang baney finger, he pynts tae a pair
O bairns cooerin hungeret-like. ‘Scrooge, takk ye heed:
Ignorance is the quine, an the laddie's name's Need

Wi a grue, he has gaen. A derk body wauchts near
The ghaist o the Yule that's tae cam in a year
There's a fusper o Daith. Fowk hae rypit a kist
O its gear, clyes an siller. Its ainer's nae missed
In the warld o business, the fowk's clashmaclavers
Tell weel fu ill-thocht o he wis bi his neebors
‘Oh fa is the vratch that aa spikk o sae ill?
The ghaist heists Scrooge up far the graves owerspill
In the kirkyaird. New cuttit the name on't wis plain
The name that he saw on the stane wis his ain!
Scrooge drapped tae his knees, prigged an vowed he wad cheenge
Be better an kinder, gin Fate cud arrange
Tae alter the pathwye his feet traivelled ower
As gweed as his wird he set aff in the oor
A muckle fat goose he pits roon tae his clerk
He raises his wyges, is kinder at wirk.
Tae the puir cripple laddie, he gies education
Fin speired, fit his cheenged him, quo Scrooge wi a wink
‘The Speerits o Yule are ower pouerfu tae jink! '