Lines Read at St. Andrew’s Anniversary

Scotia’s sons to-night we meet thee,
With kindly feelings we do greet thee,
In honor of the land of heather,
Around this board to-night we gather.

Land where the fields for border edges,
Have garlands of blooming hedges,
Land of the whin and of the broom
And where the bonnie blue bells bloom.

Land where you may enraptured hark
To heavenly song of the skylark,
Which soars triumphant in the skies
Above the gaze of human eyes.

Land of bleak hills and fertile dales,
Where they tell oft their fairy tales,
Land where the folks do love the kirk
And on the Sabbath cease from work.

Land of porridge and of brose,
Of blue bonnets and of tartan hose,
The land where all good wives do bake
The thrifty, wholesome, oaten cake.

We hope some day to tread the strand
Of our own dear native land,
And see the lasses shear the corn
Near the banks of the Findhorn.

Where the Jeans and the Maggies
Excel in making glorious baggies,
And o’er the sea we’ll some day sail
To get a bowl of good green kail.

Where this text comes from

First published in Musings on the Banks of Canadian Thames (1884). First located printing is this volume; an earlier periodical printing has not been established. [1]

Structure read from the source's markup; the words have not been compared against a page scan. Last checked 2026-08-20.

Taken from Standard Ebooks, standardebooks/james-mcintyre_poetry, poetry.xhtml. Rights: public domain (SE dedication; underlying text pre-1931).

Earlier sources (3)

This poem as JSON or plain text. Line anchors #L1–#L28.

Cite this poem

James McIntyre (1828?–1906). “Lines Read at St. Andrew’s Anniversary.” First published in Musings on the Banks of Canadian Thames (1884). Text: Poem Index, https://poemindex.org/james-mcintyre/lines-read-at-st-andrews-anniversary/. Append #L14 to cite line 14, or #L4-L9 for lines 4–9.

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