Single Malt Scotch Whisky

[danthepoetman]

Bonne fête nationale à tous les Français qui apprécient le seul bon whisky: celui d'Écosse, fait de bon malt au pot still!

[danthepoetman]

Against it None Can Prevail
J. P. McCondach, 1983


It’s a powerfull solace for a man, the whisky…
Indeed it is a creature of infinite capacity…
There is nothing it cannot do. It warms the blood against
the chittering wind and refreshes you exhausted in the heat.
It can make you ill and yet it is a sovereign medecine in
sickness. It can exalt, so that a man sits with the so-called
immortals, careless of his kind, master for a time of his own
servile destiny. It can depress and humble him to crawl in the
excrement of his own miserable bowels of self-compassion. It
can sharpen a man’s awareness of the world outside him and
of the specious prospects within him; and it can dull his
senses and his wits, equating him with the wormy clod
he is in fact. Without doubt it is an unpredictable,
multi-consequential intoxicant, imbuing its partakers with
manifold desires and proclivities: some to sleep and some to
bestir themselves; some to preach and some to blaspheme their
imagined creator; some to meditate and some to fornicate.
Much abused by its addicts and its traducers alike, it is a
complicate simple, the whisky, pure in essence but diverse in
effects; and against it none can prevail.


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[robertlouis]

This is a poem by Robert Burns. It was written in 1785.

It is part of Burns mythology that Burns liked a drink or three, although this may be used as an excuse for those holding Burns suppers to do likewise. Whether this is true or no what is undeniable is that Burns saw Scotch whisky as holding a special symbolic and fiscal significance for Scotland.

This poem, when read in alignment with The Author's Earnest Cry shows not only Burns regard for whisky, but the future excise man's disdain for London's taxation on Scotland's national drink.



Scotch Drink


Let other poets raise a fracas
"Bout vines, an' wines, an' drucken Bacchus,
An' crabbit names an'stories wrack us,
An' grate our lug:
I sing the juice Scotch bear can mak us,
In glass or jug.

O thou, my muse! guid auld Scotch drink!
Whether thro' wimplin worms thou jink,
Or, richly brown, ream owre the brink,
In glorious faem,
Inspire me, till I lisp an' wink,
To sing thy name!

Let husky wheat the haughs adorn,
An' aits set up their awnie horn,
An' pease and beans, at e'en or morn,
Perfume the plain:
Leeze me on thee, John Barleycorn,
Thou king o' grain!

On thee aft Scotland chows her cood,
In souple scones, the wale o'food!
Or tumblin in the boiling flood
Wi' kail an' beef;
But when thou pours thy strong heart's blood,
There thou shines chief.

Food fills the wame, an' keeps us leevin;
Tho' life's a gift no worth receivin,
When heavy-dragg'd wi' pine an' grievin;
But, oil'd by thee,
The wheels o' life gae down-hill, scrievin,
Wi' rattlin glee.

Thou clears the head o'doited Lear;
Thou cheers ahe heart o' drooping Care;
Thou strings the nerves o' Labour sair,
At's weary toil;
Though even brightens dark Despair
Wi' gloomy smile.

Aft, clad in massy siller weed,
Wi' gentles thou erects thy head;
Yet, humbly kind in time o' need,
The poor man's wine;
His weep drap parritch, or his bread,
Thou kitchens fine.

Thou art the life o' public haunts;
But thee, what were our fairs and rants?
Ev'n godly meetings o' the saunts,
By thee inspired,
When gaping they besiege the tents,
Are doubly fir'd.

That merry night we get the corn in,
O sweetly, then, thou reams the horn in!
Or reekin on a New-year mornin
In cog or bicker,
An' just a wee drap sp'ritual burn in,
An' gusty sucker!

When Vulcan gies his bellows breath,
An' ploughmen gather wi' their graith,
O rare! to see thee fizz an freath
I' th' luggit caup!
Then Burnewin comes on like death
At every chap.

Nae mercy then, for airn or steel;
The brawnie, banie, ploughman chiel,
Brings hard owrehip, wi' sturdy wheel,
The strong forehammer,
Till block an' studdie ring an reel,
Wi' dinsome clamour.

When skirling weanies see the light,
Though maks the gossips clatter bright,
How fumblin' cuiffs their dearies slight;
Wae worth the name!
Nae howdie gets a social night,
Or plack frae them.

When neibors anger at a plea,
An' just as wud as wud can be,
How easy can the barley brie
Cement the quarrel!
It's aye the cheapest lawyer's fee,
To taste the barrel.

Alake! that e'er my muse has reason,
To wyte her countrymen wi' treason!
But mony daily weet their weason
Wi' liquors nice,
An' hardly, in a winter season,
E'er Spier her price.

Wae worth that brandy, burnin trash!
Fell source o' mony a pain an' brash!
Twins mony a poor, doylt, drucken hash,
O' half his days;
An' sends, beside, auld Scotland's cash
To her warst faes.

Ye Scots, wha wish auld Scotland well!
Ye chief, to you my tale I tell,
Poor, plackless devils like mysel'!
It sets you ill,
Wi' bitter, dearthfu' wines to mell,
Or foreign gill.

May gravels round his blather wrench,
An' gouts torment him, inch by inch,
What twists his gruntle wi' a glunch
O' sour disdain,
Out owre a glass o' whisky-punch
Wi' honest men!

O Whisky! soul o' plays and pranks!
Accept a bardie's gratfu' thanks!
When wanting thee, what tuneless cranks
Are my poor verses!
Thou comes - they rattle in their ranks,
At ither's arses!

Thee, Ferintosh! O sadly lost!
Scotland lament frae coast to coast!
Now colic grips, an' barkin hoast
May kill us a';
For loyal Forbes' charter'd boast
Is ta'en awa?

Thae curst horse-leeches o' the' Excise,
Wha mak the whisky stells their prize!
Haud up thy han', Deil! ance, twice, thrice!
There, seize the blinkers!
An' bake them up in brunstane pies
For poor damn'd drinkers.

Fortune! if thou'll but gie me still
Hale breeks, a scone, an' whisky gill,
An' rowth o' rhyme to rave at will,
Tak a' the rest,
An' deal't about as thy blind skill
Directs thee best.

[Cedricbi01]

Starting young.
I personaly fell in it when I was young...

Dan... you mentionned THE one I do prefer !
I hope I will not shock the real connoisseurs...

Cardhu !

[Cedricbi01]

...and by the way : BEAUTIFUL pics of Scotland up there !

[jimme747]

Ach Aye, Uisgue Beate, "water of life".
Got my hands on a nice Irish blend "Midleton" by John Jameson.

Ducking awesome.

Cheers J.

[Gillian]

Speaking as a Scotsman, can I just say that I can't fucking stand Robert Burns ...

[robertlouis]

Speaking as a Scotsman, can I just say that I can't fucking stand Robert Burns ...

The poetry, the hype, or the myth?

Come on, you knew I'd ask!

[Prospero]

The poetry is hard if you can't read past the dialect IMHO... the hype is irritating... but the man is, clearly, a giant in the literary world. (Almost as good a poet as Rod McKuen)

[crystalcity]

My current favorite is Longmorn 16year.