Dictionary of the Scots Language - I

[Elphin]

Blether (v) foolish or loquacious chatter;
to brag; a long walk over a cobbled path
to twenty nine thousand and three feet
in kitten heels; love poetry.

Ayr 1769 Epistle from a Mauchline Belle, Anon, extract

Noo Robert! Wheesht! Haud your blethers!/Was but aince we lay the gither,
That does nae mean you are the faither/O’ my braw bairn.
Be sure your words will run forever/But not your name.



Notes
Haud (Scots) - hold
Aince (Scots) – once
Braw (Scots) – beautiful
Bairn (Scots) – small child
A’ (Scots) – all
Mauchline Belles – a group of young women known by Robert Burns in the town of Mauchline, the best known being Jean Armour who became his wife. All are lauded in his poem The Belles of Mauchline.

[ray miller]

There was a poem in The Guardian on Saturday by Liz Lochead which used this very word.Down here it's blather. I like the concept though I'm not sure what the 29000 ft walk is meant to allude to. The poetic experience? Life? You could have made up the second bit, the epistle, yourself for all I know. It's very good but I feel I'm missing more than I'm gettng.

[Danté]

elph

Are we talking Everest here? If so "kitten heels" footsteps through snow, or simply carefully negotiating.
I really enjoyed the language and wanted more, but then it says it all with what you have.
I'm a little disappointed, there is nothing I can see that could really be improved in such a tight piece.
My intention was to read and offer some critique in experienced, but so far the two I've read
are well honed already.

I enjoyed this subject

all the best

Tim

[David]

This is a great idea, Elph. It's a tight shiny little post-modern object but (as I found myself asking elsewhere recently) is it a poem?

If it isn't, it is at least a machine made of words for the purpose of provoking thought, and if that isn't a definition of a poem, I don't know what is.

Cheers

David

[OwenEdwards]

I think a poem will be generally defined by, at the very least, a use of linebreaks in verse form to present particular wordplays and word images.

This did well at being a poem!

[a. gray]

Hi Elphin,

loving your work! I'm still thinking about the first part of the poem, the significance of your definitions; I'm not sure I fully grasp them all but they interest me and they're fun to think about.

Visually you're poem appeals instantly; it's got that 'jump off the page' quality: it knows what it is. The type in bold, 'Ayr' in red gives an impression of confidence that seems trustworthy. Original but inviting, I'm taking notes here(!)

When I was reading the Scots section, I wondered to myself "Should 'does nae' be one word? or 'you are' be run together? Should 'not' be 'no'?" Minor points really and to be honest, though I'm Scottish myself, I'm not fully aware of the dialects down that way, so ignore whatever doesn't apply. I do like how you've structured the 'poetry' section, David mentioned the post-modernist thing. When I read the word 'forever' I wanted to read something else, can it be Scottified too!?

I kind of got the feeling you were trying to spare the reader slightly with the dialect, which is polite; inately Scottish but I would like to see you lay it on thick, perhaps with a large brush, or trowel!

[Elphin]

Thanks all for popping past.

A bit of departure for me, inspired by some similar stuff in Jen Hadfield's collection. I had the epistle lines lying around without a home and decided they were no more than blethers and would never be a complete poem and well one thing led to another as it does.

29003 ft is one more foot than the height of Everest and was meant to add colour to the idea that to blether is to brag in a long winded way.

The old question - what is a poem? I dont claim to have the answers but Id like this to qualify.

Fair point Arthur about dialect - I think Im trying to find a happy medium and maybe settle with the mixture of proper English and dialect that I may use in everyday life.

Thanks once again

elph

[brianedwards]

This is terrific. I do admire work that grapples with the language in such a way.

I am not sure about the title though. Is it the letter I? Or the Roman numeral for 1? What is referring to? Is it part of a series? Am I being thick?

Don't answer the last one.

Cheers.

B.