The Walter Robin Manuscripts
The Comic Verses
- With Lady musicians I went to the Faire
- To search out the dancers where they might be found
- And so we established ourselves in the town square,
- With fifer and fiddler and harpist renowned.
- We met a young fellow who was frothing to dance
- And so he, careless, laid his pipe by
- My several lasses seized upon the chance
- To give his strange chanter a try.
- Putting fingers to holes and testing its tune
- Blowing it gently and hearing its sound
- And though each thought that her turn ended too soon,
- ‘Till all had tried it, they passed it around.
- They asked if I’d try, I answered them, ‘Nay!
- I’ve one of my own, when I wish to play!’
Author's Notes
This is a true story, which occurred exactly as chronicled here. I even do have a bagpipe chanter (the instrument in question) of my own. The ironic quality of the situation was not lost on me, and this poem nearly wrote itself.
Although this is not a traditional theme, the sonnet form works pretty well here, given the punchline-like quality of the heroic closing couplet for sonnets in general.
Copyright © 1999, Andy Borman (Walter Robin). All rights reserved. Contact to reprint.
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