The Dee lies smeeth’s a kelpie’s keekin-glaiss
The swallin rose-hip skirps the brae wi reid
Drookit wi sun, the purple heather blooms
Forget-me-not uplifts her winsome heid

A kirn o craws, blawn lum-rik, furl an flee
A peesie rises skirlin frae her reest
The milky clover dovers on her stem
A bummer sikks a harebell’s dyewy breist.

A heron, stiff’s an elder o the kirk
Is haloed bi a sunbeam, glimmrin gowd
Birks nod thegither — clash o claikin quines
A beech tree’s fusperin ghaist-tales tae a cloud

Sma bandies shoogle dwaumin bi the banks
The wechty watter’s lappin at their lug
A fisher wheeps a line slang a puil
Saft breezes gie carl doddie powes a rug

Like pink pagodas Wandrin Willies rise
A heeze o midgies steer in nippy ranks
A wid-wasp tries a fox-glove on fur size
The nettle stang’s a fire alang the shanks

The yoam o Simmer’s wauchtin frae the wids
The barley boos its bonnie, braided tap
Fern furls her feathered airms abune the brae
Trout lowp like commas, plunkin wi a plap.

Aside the slokin waves, thin-shankit girse
Hings dowie, dreepin dreich as widda’s weeds
A muckle aix ootraxxes hyne alaft
A daunce o licht an shade amang the reeds.

Neb beeriet far the thrissle breists the brae
A muir-moch frae a den o dappled neuks
Flits far tod-haunted shaddas sook the sun
A futterat pads, a moosie in her cleuks.

Tail-en o Simmer’s sweet slang the Dee
The larick biggs a reef ower glidin deer
Hawk hings, a bolt o lichtnin on the wing
Hairst-sizzen, reamin brose bowl o the year.