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Daylicht Has Mony Een

David Rorie

O! can’le licht’s baith braw and bricht
At e’en when bars are drawn,
But can’le licht’s a dowie sicht
When dwinin’ i’ the dawn.
Yet dawn can bring nae wearier day
Than I hae dree’d yestre’en,
An’ comin’ day may licht my way—
Daylicht has mony een.

Noo, daylicht’s fairly creepin’ in,
I hear the auld cock craw;
Fu’ aft I’ve banned him for his din,
An’ wauk’nin’ o’ us a’!
But welcome noo’s his lichtsome cry
Sin’ bed-fast I ha’e been,
It tells anither nicht’s gane by—
Daylicht has mony een.

O! bed-fast men are weary men,
Laid by frae a’ their wark;
Hoo thocht can kill ye ne’er will ken
Till tholin’ ‘t in the dark.
But ere nicht fa’s I’ll maybe see
What yet I hinna seen,
A land whaur mirk can never be—
Daylicht has mony een.
Online text © 1998-2008 Poetry X. All rights reserved.
From The Auld Doctor and other Poems and Songs in Scots
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