CXXXIII.
Reading edition
WILLIE WASTLE.
Tune—“The eight men of Moidart.”
[The person who is raised to the disagreeable elevation of heroine of this song, was, it is said, a farmer’s wife of the old school of domestic care and uncleanness, who lived nigh the poet, at Ellisland.]
I.
Willie Wastle dwalt on Tweed, The spot they call’d it Linkum-doddie. Willie was a wabster guid, Cou’d stown a clue wi’ onie bodie; He had a wife was dour and din, O Tinkler Madgie was her mither; Sic a wife as Willie had, I wad nae gie a button for her.
II.
She has an e’e—she has but ane, The cat has twa the very colour; Five rusty teeth, forbye a stump, A clapper-tongue wad deave a miller: A whiskin’ beard about her mou’, Her nose and chin they threaten ither— Sic a wife as Willie had, I wad nae gie a button for her.
III.
She’s bow hough’d, she’s hem shinn’d, A limpin’ leg, a hand-breed shorter; She’s twisted right, she’s twisted left, To balance fair in ilka quarter: She has a hump upon her breast, The twin o’ that upon her shouther— Sic a wife as Willie had, I wad nae gie a button for her.
IV.
Auld baudrans by the ingle sits, An’ wi’ her loof her face a-washin’; But Willie’s wife is nae sae trig, She dights her grunzie wi’ a hushion. Her walie nieves like midden-creels, Her face wad fyle the Logan-Water— Sic a wife as Willie had, I wad nae gie a button for her.