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by William Soutar (1898 - 1943)

Aince upon a day
Language: Scottish (Scots) 
Aince upon a day my mither said to me:
Dinna cleip and dinna rype
And dinna tell a lee.
For gin ye cleip a craw will name ye,
And gin ye rype a daw will shame ye;
And a snail will heeze its hornies out
And hike them round and round about
Gin ye tell a lee, gin ye tell a lee.

Aince upon a day, as I walkit a' my lane,
I met a daw, and monie a craw,
And a snail upon a stane.
Up gaed the daw and didna shame me:
Up gaed ilk craw and didna name me:
But the wee snail heezed its hornies out
And hik'd them round and round about
And -- goggled at me.

Text Authorship:

  • by William Soutar (1898 - 1943) [author's text not yet checked against a primary source]

Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):

  • by Buxton Daeblitz Orr (1924 - 1997), "Aince upon a day", first performed 1962 [voice and piano], from Songs of a Childhood, no. 1, confirmed with a concert programme booklet [ sung text verified 1 time]

Researcher for this page: Malcolm Wren [Guest Editor]

This text was added to the website: 2018-02-05
Line count: 16
Word count: 121

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