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© by Maurice Lindsay (1918 - 2009)

Willie Wabster
 (Sung text for setting by T. Musgrave)
 Matches base text
Language: English 
Hae ye seen Willie Wabster?
 [ ... ]
This text may be copyright, so we will not display it until we obtain permission to do so or discover it is public-domain.
Modern English translation (Willie Webster), also by the author:
Have you seen Willie Webster?
He's well known from Scrabster
South to the silver Tweed.
He runs his fingers through the sky
To keep the stars a moving:
When thunder clouds go slowly by,
He gives them each a shoving.
And when the moon offends his sight,
He casts it o'er his shoulder;
So as to snuff the sun's bright light
His winds go swaggering bolder.
Have you seen Willie Webster?
He's well known from Scrabster
South to the silver Tweed.
He makes the raindrops out of heav'n
Come driving on the town
In ribbons all the colours seven,
He drops and dangles down.
Small wonder that I'm often scared,
For I'm not certain whether
He's God himself, the Lord of the world
Or just his clerk of weather.

Composition:

    Set to music by Thea Musgrave (b. 1928), "Willie Wabster", 1953 [ voice and piano ], from A Suite o' Bairnsangs, no. 3

Text Authorship:

  • by Maurice Lindsay (1918 - 2009), "Willie Wabster", appears in The Exiled Heart, first published 1957, copyright ©

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This text was added to the website: 2010-01-22
Line count: 22
Word count: 123

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