On a Schoolmaster in Cleish Parish, Fifeshire

On a Schoolmaster in Cleish Parish, Fifeshire - meaning Summary

Mischievous Teacher's Epitaph

This very short epitaph, written in Scots dialect, mockingly consigns a hated schoolmaster to Satan while asking that he be put in charge of children. The joke is that the teacher is so bad he will turn pupils into little devils. It uses blunt, comic phrasing to condemn the man’s character and pedagogy, turning memorial form into satire. The tone is playful spite rather than solemn grief, making the poem a compact piece of social humor about authority and education.