Love–Hate

What I love about Scotland is her solemn hills
What I hate about Scotland is the mist that shrouds them
What I love about Scotland is her empty moors
What I hate about Scotland is the rain that scours them
What I love about Scotland is the humour of her language
What I hate about Scotland is the sharpness of her tongue
What I love about Scotland is the softness of her voices
What I hate about Scotland is the harshness of her voices
What I love about Scotland is the backbeat of her music
What I hate about Scotland is her sentimental songs
What I love about Scotland is her stern, granite faces
What I hate about Scotland is her stern, granite hearts
What I love about Scotland is ‘You’ll take a dram’
What I hate about Scotland is ‘You’ll have had your tea’
What I love about Scotland is the amber fire of whisky
What I hate about Scotland is the sugar rush of Irn Bru
What I love about Scotland is the roaring of her stags
What I hate about Scotland is the roaring of her drunks
What I love about Scotland is the grandeur of her cities
What I hate about Scotland is her mean little towns
What I love about Scotland is the splendour of her castles
What I hate about Scotland is the blood that built them
What I love about Scotland is the thickness of her walls
What I hate about Scotland is the smallness of her windows
What I love about Scotland is the past is everywhere
What I hate about Scotland is the past is everywhere
What I love about Scotland is her flair and pride
What I hate about Scotland is her misery and envy
What I love about Scotland is her dogged emigrés
What I hate about Scotland is the manner of their leaving
What I love about Scotland is her openness and tolerance
What I hate about Scotland is the chanting on the terraces
What I love about Scotland is the love of being Scots
What I hate about Scotland is the hatred for the English
What I love about Scotland is her pomp and ceremony
What I hate about Scotland is her tawdry tartan tourism
What I love about Scotland is Holy Willie’s Prayer
What I hate about Scotland is the Willies that live on
What I love about Scotland is her hands across the water
What I hate about Scotland is her feet in the kailyard
What I love about Scotland is what she could soon become
What I hate about Scotland is those who don’t believe it
What I love about Scotland is it’s our boy who wrote:
For a’ that, an’ a’ that,
It’s coming yet for a’ that
That Man to Man, the world o’er
Shall brothers be for a’ that.