POEM OF THE DAY

London-born John Keats was responsible for some of the most richly imagined and worded poems in the English language. But he also had a sense of humour and a laconic way with language when he liked, as this light-hearted comparison of things English and Scottish shows. A visit to Scotland also produced poems about Robert Burns, Ailsa Craig, and Ben Nevis.

FROM A SONG ABOUT MYSELF

There was a naughty boy, And a naughty boy was he, He ran away to Scotland The people for to see – There he found

That the ground

Was as hard,

That a yard

Was as long,

That a song

Was as merry,

That a cherry

Was as red,

That lead

Was as weighty,

That fourscore

Was as eighty,

That a door

Was as wooden

As in England –

So he stood in his shoes And he wondered, He wondered,

He stood in his

Shoes and he wondered.