He still had his glorious sense of words drawn from the special reservoir from which Lincoln also drew, fed by Shakespeare and thoseTudor critics who wrote the first Prayer Book of Edward VI and their Jacobean successors who translated the Bible.
Scots, wha hae wi' Wallace bled, Scots, wham Bruce has aften led, Welcome to your gory bed, Or to victorie! Now's the day, and now's the hour; See the front o' battle lour; See approach proud Edward's power, Chains and Slaverie!
Weave the warp, and weave the woof, The winding-sheet of Edward's race. Give ample room, and verge enough The characters of hell to trace.
O flower of Scotland, when will we see your like again, That fought and died for your wee bit hill and glen And stood against him, proud Edward's army, And sent him homeward tae think again.
Webster's New World Dictionary of Quotations Copyright © 2010 by Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved. Published by Wiley, Hoboken, NJ. Used by arrangement with John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
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