A Fiddler in the North
written in 1794
A Fiddler in the North - meaning Summary
Music Resists Intrusive Discord
This short poem personifies Scotland as "Auld Caledon," playing traditional tunes—pibroch, strathspeys, reels—until jarring, foreign sounds interrupt and unsettle listeners. The noisy intruders are treated as cultural intrusion that makes people "eerie" and worn out. A recovered royal ghost then summons or inspires a northern fiddler whose playing drives away the disruptive noises. In plain terms the poem contrasts native musical tradition and communal steadiness with alien disturbance, ending with a restorative return to familiar song and order.
Read Complete AnalysesAmang the trees, where humming bees, At buds and flowers were hinging, O, Auld Caledon drew out her drone, And to her pipe was singing, O: 'Twas Pibroch, Sang, Strathspeys, and Reels, She dirl'd them aff fu' clearly, O: When there cam' a yell o' foreign squeels, That dang her tapsalteerie, O. Their capon craws an' queer "ha, ha's," They made our lugs grow eerie, O; The hungry bike did scrape and fyke, Till we were wae and weary, O: But a royal ghaist, wha ance was cas'd, A prisoner, aughteen year awa', He fir'd a Fiddler in the North, That dang them tapsalteerie, O.
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