W. D. Cocker’s darkly humorous retelling of the Old Testament story of the Flood continues. The Ark is built. The neighbours, thinking rain would be “guid for the neeps,” have no inkling of the imminent catastrophe. . .
THE DELUGE (continued)
Then Noah wi’ a’ his ain folk,
An’ the beasts an’ the birds got aboard;
An’ they steekit the door o’ the ark,
An’ they lippened theirsels to the Lord.
~
Then doun cam’ a lashin’ o’ rain,
Like the wattest wat day in Lochaber;
The hailstones like plunkers cam’ stot,
And the fields turned to glaur, an’ syne glabber.
~
An’ the burns a’ cam’ doun in a spate,
An’ the rivers ran clean ower the haughs,
An’ the brigs were a’ soopit awa’,
An what had been dubs becam’ lochs.
~
Then the folk were sair pitten aboot,
An’ they cried, as the weather got waur:
‘Oh! Lord, we ken fine we ha’e sinn’d
But a joke can be cairried ower faur!’
~
Then they chapp’d at the ark’s muckle door,
To speer gin douce Noah had room;
But Noah ne’er heedit their cries,
He said:’This’ll learn ye to soom.’
~
An’ the river roar’d loudly an’ deep;
An’ the miller was droon’t in the mill;
An’ the watter spread ower a’ the land,
An’ the shepherd was droon’t on the hill.
~
But Noah, an’ a’ his ain folk,
Kep’ safe frae the fate o’ ill men,
Till the ark, when the flood had gi’en ower,
Cam’ dunt on the tap o’ a ben.
~
An’ the waters row’d back to the seas,
An’ the seas settled doun and were calm.
An’ Noah replenished the earth –
But they’re sayin’ he took a guid dram!
to soom=to swim
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article