It came upon the ninth month of the very fourteenth year
Of the century ranked twenty-first all Scotland gave a cheer
From every Highland bothie and from every Highland cow
Rang out the shout with glad acclaim for “We are all free now”
Free to raise our own tax (though we’d like to have it fall)
Free to catch our own fish (not let Europe share the haul)
Free from Big Ben’s looming watch upon our every act
For from the South a fresh Independence we have voted to enact
Not that we hate the English, No! For all men should be brothers
As Robert Burns has boldly taught and ought to respect one another’s
Sovereignty - just as all respected Queen Victoria -
Not scornfully to say “Away the noo! We want nae more ae ya.”
But aye! Let Neptune’s realm no more be stirred by a wicked Trident -
O such a thing in a Holy Loch! My prayer against that is strident.
Let wave-power and what’s left of oil fuel Caledonia’s glory!
I gladly scribe the start of this new chapter in Scotia’s story.
[Please note, in L1 here I am crediting William McGonagall with an accurate if pedantic perception: that the first century was years 1 to 100, and so on up to the twentieth century 1901-2000. The twenty-first century commencing with 2001 (not 2000), 2014 will thus be its fourteenth year.]
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