FROM A CARRIAGE WINDOW

Alexander Anderson 1845-1909

Just a peep from a carriage window,
As we stood for a moment still,
Just one look - and no more - till the engine
Gave a whistle sharp and shrill.

But I saw in that moment the heather,
That lay like a purple sheet
On the hills that watch o’er the hamlet
That sleeps like a child at their feet.

O, sweet are those hills when the winter
Flings round them his mantle of snow,
And sweet when the sunshine of summer
Sets their fair green bosoms aglow.

But sweeter and grander in autumn,
When the winds are soft with desire,
When the buds of the heather take blossom,
And run to their summits like fire.

I saw each and all through the heather
That purple lay spread like a sheet
On the hills that watch over the hamlet,
That sleeps like a child at their feet.

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Born in Kirkconnel in Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland, Alexander Anderson at the age of sixteen worked in a quarry, and two years later he became a surfaceman or platelayer on the Glasgow and South-Western railway. He usually wrote under the pseudonym Surfaceman.

Later he became assistant librarian in Edinburgh University, and after an interval as secretary to the Philosophical Institution there, he returned as Chief Librarian to the university. His friends included the Duke of Argyll and Thomas Carlyle.

Many of his poems are in the Scottish dialect, among them the well-known "Cuddle Doon".

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Tomorrow's poem is a warning to all who over-imbibe!!!

Have you a minute? If so, have a quick look at http://haveyouaminute.blogspot.com

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