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Poems by Robert Nicoll

Second edition: with numerous additions, and a memoir of the author
  
  

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THE HONEST AND TRUE.
  
  
  
  
  
  
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THE HONEST AND TRUE.

Your soldier is bloody, your statesman a knave;
Frae the true heart nae honour they ever shall have:
Their glitter an' fauseness may gar our hearts grue;
But honour to him wha is honest and true!
Will we bow to the coof wha has naething but gear?
Or the fool whom a college has fitted wi' lear?
Na, troth! we'll gi'e honour where honour is due—
To the Man wha has ever been honest and true!

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We'll ne'er speer if he come frae France, Holland, or Spain,
Ere we pledge manly friendship wi' him to maintain—
Be he Mussulman, Christian, Pagan, or Jew,
'Tis a' ane to us if he's honest and true!
His skin may be black, or his skin may be white,—
We carena a fig, if his bosom be right:
Though his claes be in rags, an' the wind blawin' through,
We'll honour the man wha is honest and true!
While the sun's in the heavens, the stars in the sky,—
Till the earth be a sea, till the ocean run dry,—
We'll honour but him to whom honour is due,
The Man wha has ever been honest and true!