Classic Poem

O brother, little brother,
A charge I have for thee
To keep when I in three days' time
Am laid 'neath kirk-yard tree.

Now fetch my mass-book from the shelf;
This flower, its leaves between,
Was not so blue by half that noon
As were his bonny een.

But pressed 'twixt holy psalm and prayer
In scarce a twelvemonth's space,
They 've turned to nigh as pale a hue
As hath thy sister's face.

Go take this mass-book in thy hand,
Thy dirk-knife at thy side,
And take thy trusty hound with thee,
And seek the Lord of Clyde.

Seek for him not in his own halls,
But go to Airdislee;
He'll be at Lady Ellen's feet,
His head upon her knee.

Her knees are clad in cloth of gold,
A lordly place to rest;
But ask him if it be as soft
As was thy sister's breast!

Then put this curse upon his head
That I may sweetly sleep.
I cannot lie there unavenged,
Though buried ne'er so deep.

So that I be not doomed to walk
A ghost uncomforted,
Put thou this ban upon his life,
This curse upon his head:

“May every step thou takest lead
Down on the path to hell.
May every daughter of thy race
Fall as thy victim fell.

“May every son that's born to thee
Be curst with strong desire,
Yet powerless by the hand of God
To sin as sinned his sire.

“May every prayer change on thy lips
To awful blasphemy,
So that by thine own prayer thy soul
Must needs accurséd be.”

Now, long life to the Lord of Clyde,
And may my curse work well.
I could not bide in heaven were he
Undoomed to bide in hell.

The little angels I shall leave,
My harp I shall forget;
'T will be my heaven to look on him
From heaven's parapet.

To see the justice of the Lord
Worked out in such a way,
Would turn hell's gloom for one like me
To bright eternal day.

Fare on, my little brother, now,
And do my last behest;
Turn thou my face against the wall,
And I will sweetly rest.

Farewell, and yet a long farewell,
For death will come to me
Before thyself and Jock, thy hound,
Come back from Airdislee.

But if the curse thou carry well,
The good God I will ask
To let Jock enter heaven with thee,
Because thou didst this task.

Repeat the curse upon the way,
Again and yet again;
And be thou blest and be he damned,—
Hear me, O God! Amen.