---
title: "Scottish Poetry Selection - Rantin' Rev'rend · Rampant Scotland"
description: "Scottish Poetry Selection - Rantin' Rev'rend It wasn't all that long ago that ministers regaled their congregations with fire and brimstone to keep them on the "
canonical: "https://rampant-scotland.pages.dev/poetry/blpoems_rantin.htm"
last-updated: "2026-11-11"
date-basis: "git-content-change"
---

# Scottish Poetry Selection - Rantin' Rev'rend · Rampant Scotland

Poetry

# Scottish Poetry Selection - Rantin' Rev'rend

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Scottish Poetry Selection
 - Rantin' Rev'rend

## It wasn't all that long ago that ministers regaled their congregations with fire and brimstone to keep them on the straight and narrow. Some, however, would go "over the top" - and become the subject of humorous poems such as this one by George Fortune (1898-1982). George Fortune served in France in World War 1, in the Royal Scots. His working life was spent with the Health Department in St. Andrew's House in Edinburgh. His other main interests besides composing old-style Scottish verse, were golf, music, and woodworking.See also [Maw, Whit if he Ever Gets Oot?](https://web.archive.org/web/20051215092552/http://rampantscotland.com/poetry/blpoems_oot.htm) on a similar theme.

## Rantin' Rev'rend

Ae meenister in Tam's lang reign,
 Turned oot tae be oor beadle's bane,
 O' Tam's advice he wad hae nane.
 A man o' God, or sae he thocht,
 Tae save oor souls gey hard he wrocht.
 The pairish werena fell impressed
 Wi' a' his weys; an' hoo he stressed
 Jist whaur yin stood amang the Blessed.
 He'd warn them a' o' fires o' hell,
 An' pit some brimstone in as well.
 Ae Sabbath, Tam, on usual chore,
 Mairched doon the aisle, Rev'rend afore,
 An' saw him safe 'hint poopit door;
 Saw it was snecked - maid shair nae doot
 That Reve'rend soul wadna fa' oot.
 An' jist as weel, for on that day
 His Rev'rence opened up tae flay
 A' thae bad fowk wi' feet o' clay.
 Tae them a' grace wad be denied,
 An' pearly gates - wi' them ootside.
 He got up steam an' fairly biled,
 His rantin' was jist awfu' wild,
 An' frichted mony wife an' child.
 Whate'er that congregation's views,
 That Sabbatth day, they didna snooze.
 It chanced that Joe, the doctor's lad,
 Had come tae kirk wi' them: he had
 Been less nor guid - in fact richt bad.
 Sae Faither said, "It's you for kirkie
 As weel as Sunday-schule, ma birkie.
 Puir Joe, at Rev'rend's seeming rage,
 The richts o' it he couldna guage,
 Saw only man in poopit cage.
 Tae Faither anguished question put,
 "What wull we dae if he gets oot?"
 Meaning of unusual words:
 Ae=one
 gey=very
 wrocht=laboured, worked
 werena fell=weren't greatly
 'hint poopit door=behind the pulpit door
 snecked=latched
 biled=boiled
 frichted=frightened
 birkie=a strutting or swaggering fellow

## Return to the Index of [Scottish Poetry Selection](https://rampant-scotland.pages.dev/poetry/blpoems_index.htm)

## Source

From Rampant Scotland, restored from the page as it stood on 15 December 2005. [Original page](https://web.archive.org/web/20051215092552/http://rampantscotland.com:80/poetry/blpoems_rantin.htm).

Links to pages not yet restored here lead to the original page or elsewhere on the web; 1 of 2 links on this page are restored on this site.