Quote#Nature
What's a' your jargon o' your schools
Quote byRobert Burns · 1759–1796
Commonly attributed — not confirmed in an authoritative edition. Cited on Wikiquote to: Quoted in The Athenæum, no. 756 (23 April 1842) p. 361, col. 2. Last two lines quoted as epigraph in Eliza Cook, Poems, new ed. (London: Routledge, Warne, & Routledge, 1860) front matter.
English (original)
What's a' your jargon o' your schools, Your Latin names for horns and stools? If honest Nature made you fools What sairs your grammars? Ye'd better taen up spades and shools Or knappin hammers. Gie' me ae spark o' Nature's fire! That's a' the learning I desire: Then, tho' I drudge thro' dub and mire At plough or cart, My muse, though homely in attire, May touch the heart.
— Robert Burns
More from Robert Burns
I'm truly sorry Man's dominion Has broken Nature's social union, An' justifies that ill opinion Which makes thee startle, At me, thy poor, earth-born companion, An' fellow-mortal!
All in this mottie, misty clime, I backward mus'd on wasted time, How I had spent my youthfu' prime An' done nae-thing, But stringing blethers up to rhyme For fools to sing.
Gin a body meet a body Comin thro' the rye, Gin a body kiss a body, Need a body cry?
Wee, sleekit, cow'rin', tim'rous beastie, O what a panic's in thy breastie! Thou need na start awa sae hasty, Wi' bickering brattle! I wad be laith to rin an' chase thee, Wi' murd'ring pattle!
The best laid schemes o' mice and men Gang aft a-gley; And leave us naught but grief and pain For promised joy.
When chill November's surly blast Made fields and forests bare.