{"id":469,"date":"2011-01-21T11:47:31","date_gmt":"2011-01-21T16:47:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thelifeliterary.com\/?p=469"},"modified":"2011-01-21T11:47:31","modified_gmt":"2011-01-21T16:47:31","slug":"immortal-memory-4-the-holy-fair","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.thelifeliterary.com\/?p=469","title":{"rendered":"Immortal Memory 4: The Holy Fair"},"content":{"rendered":"

Only a few times a year, a parish in Scotland would hold a several day communion service.\u00a0 Burns immortalizes such an event in The Holy Fair<\/em>.\u00a0 It’s too long to read the whole thing, but I’ll share a few verses that show his eye for hypocrisy.\u00a0 Near the start of the poem, he describes seeing three women on their way to the fair.<\/p>\n

“My name is Fun-your cronie<\/a> dear,
\nThe nearest friend ye hae;
\nAn’ this is Superstitution here,
\nAn’ that’s Hypocrisy.
\nI’m gaun<\/a> to Mauchline Holy Fair,
\nTo spend an hour in daffin:
\nGin ye’ll go there, yon<\/a> runkl’d<\/a> pair,
\nWe will get famous laughin
\nAt them this day.”<\/p>\n

Quoth I, “Wi’ a’ my heart, I’ll do’t;
\nI’ll get<\/a> my Sunday’s sark<\/a> on,
\nAn’ meet you on the holy spot;
\nFaith, we’se<\/a> hae fine remarkin!”
\nThen I gaed hame at crowdie-time,
\nAn’ soon I made me ready;
\nFor roads were clad, frae side to side,
\nWi’ mony a weary body<\/a>
\nIn droves that day.<\/p>\n

For him, watching humanity in all it’s varied ups and downs and goods and bads was fun.\u00a0 He didn’t like hypocrisy, but he enjoyed his craft as a poet to write about it.\u00a0 Hear how he describes the crowd:<\/p>\n

Here, some are thinkin on their sins,
\nAn’ some upo’ their claes;
\nAne curses feet that fyl’d his shins,
\nAnither<\/a> sighs an’ prays:
\nOn this hand sits a chosen swatch,
\nWi’ screwed-up, grace-proud faces;
\nOn that a set<\/a> o’ chaps, at watch,
\nThrang<\/a> winkin on the lasses
\nTo chairs that day.<\/p>\n

Burns, in the poem, covers more issues.\u00a0 For now, it’s enough to see\u00a0 how he ended it:<\/p>\n

How mony hearts this day converts
\nO’ sinners and o’ lasses!
\nTheir hearts o’ stane, gin<\/a> night, are gane<\/a>
\nAs saft<\/a> as ony flesh is:
\nThere’s some are fou o’ love divine;
\nThere’s some are fou<\/a> o’<\/a> brandy;
\nAn’<\/a> mony jobs that day begin,
\nMay end in houghmagandie<\/a>
\nSome ither<\/a> day.<\/p>\n

Houghmagandie was his word for fornication in the technical sense of the word.\u00a0 This poem shines the light not just on hypocrisy among leaders but really anybody at all, or high or low station.\u00a0 A person is a person is a person, Burns believed, and so act like who you are.\u00a0 And, may you are be good and kind and charitable.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Only a few times a year, a parish in Scotland would hold a several day communion service.\u00a0 Burns immortalizes such an event in The Holy Fair.\u00a0 It’s too long to read the whole thing, but I’ll share a few verses … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4],"tags":[34,30,31,48],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thelifeliterary.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/469"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thelifeliterary.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thelifeliterary.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thelifeliterary.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thelifeliterary.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=469"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"http:\/\/www.thelifeliterary.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/469\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":534,"href":"http:\/\/www.thelifeliterary.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/469\/revisions\/534"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thelifeliterary.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=469"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thelifeliterary.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=469"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thelifeliterary.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=469"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}