Guard the Gaelic. An Exhortation to the Gael

By Angus MacKay (Oscar Dhu), ca 1918 from By Trench and Trail in Song and Story Angus MacKay who adopted and published under the 'nom de plume' Oscar Dhu was born in Lingwick, Quebec in 1864, he remains one of the areas most celebrated Scottish poets. The Findlay referred to in the poem is his friend and fellow Lingwick poet Findlay McRitchie. This poem then belongs with the traditions of the Isle of Lewis Highlanders who settled in the Eastern Townships of Quebec and was written at a time when Gaelic was still spoken there.

Is it not our bounden right
To uphold with all our might,
And with tongue and pen to fight
For our native Gaelic?

Guard the language known to Eve,
Ere the Serpent did deceive
And the last one we believe
Mellow, matchless Gaelic!

Pity the disloyal clown
Who will dwell awhile in town,
And returning wear a frown
If he hears the Gaelic.

'Tis amusing to behold
Little misses ten years old
When they leave the country fold
How they lose the Gaelic.

Some gay natives of the soil,
Cross "the line" a little while
And returning, deem it 'style'
To deny the Gaelic.

Lads and lassies in their teens
Wearing airs of kings and queens
Just a taste of Boston beans
Makes them lose their Gaelic!

They return with finer clothes,
Speaking "Yankee" through their nose!
That's the way the Gaelic goes
Pop! Goes the Gaelic.

Tho' the so called "tony set"
Teach them quickly to forget,
They will all be loyal yet
To their mother Gaelic.

Then abjure such silly pride
Cast the ragged thing aside
Let your mongrel 'English' slide
Rather than the Gaelic.

What a dire calamity
And how lonesome we would be
If our honored sennachie,
Failed to charm in Gaelic!

Better for the "mother tongue"
Language in which Mother sung
Long ago, when we were young
Ever tender Gaelic!

Findlay's ever ready muse,
Stricken dumb, would soon refuse
People further to enthuse,
If he lost his Gaelic!

And Buchanan, how could he
Sell his soda or his tea
On this side of "Talamh a righ"
If he lost his Gaelic?

Also merchant Edward Mac
Would not sell so much tomac
If his stock was found to lack
Lusty Lewis Gaelic!

And Pennoyer, what would you
At the Gould post office do
When you'd hear from not a few
"Ca mar u ha u fean a diubh"
If you lost your Gaelic?

O'er his buirdly shoulder laid,
Would go dancing in the shade,
And his glory soon would fade
If he lost his Gaelic.

From O'Groat's to Lands' End too,
What would brother Scotsmen do
All loyal clansmen who
But a single language knew,
If they lost their Gaelic?

What would then become of those
Poems grand, in rhyme or prose,
Which in stately measure flows
From "Beinn Oran's" spotless snows!
"Chaibar Faidth" the best that grows
"Fhit a baitha" how he rows!
What, I ask, would happen those
If we lost our Gaelic?

Then uphold the magic tongue
Which through mystic Eden rung
When Creation still was young
Language in which Adam sung
To his Eve, Earth's first love song,
When the morning stars were flung
Into space, where since they've clung
Ancient, Glorious Gaelic