This darksome burn, horseback brown, His rollrock highroad roaring down, Flutes and low to the lake falls home.
A windpuff-bonnet of fáwn-fróth
Turns and twindles over the broth Of a pool so pitchblack, féll-frówning, It rounds and rounds Despair to drowning.
Degged with dew, dappled with dew Are the groins of the braes that the brook treads through, [10] And the beadbonny ash that sits over the burn.
What would the world be, once bereft Of wet and of wildness? Let them be left, O let them be left, wildness and wet;
Long live the weeds and the wilderness yet. [5]
[15]
GLOSSARY
GLOSSARY
[Title] Inversnaid: a remote village in Scotland [1] darksome: a combination of ‘dark’ and ‘handsome’ [1] burn: small stream [2] rollrock: rolling rocks [3] coop: enclosed hollow [3] comb: rippling stretch of water [4] Flutes: [5] windpuff-bonnet: froth that sits on the water like a hat [5] fáwn-fróth: yellowish-brown froth [6] twindles: a combination of ‘twirls’ and ‘dwindles’ [7] féll-frówning: [9] Degged: sprinkled [9] dappled: spotted
[10] groins: curved edges [10] braes: steep bank or hillside [11] heathpacks: clumps of heather
[12] beadbonny: a combination of berried (bead) and beautiful (bonny)