Milk-white cotton hair

Cwa' een like milk-wort and bog-cotton hair!
I love you, earth, in this mood best o' a'
When the shy spirit like a laich wind moves
And frae the lift nae shadow can fa'
Since there's nocht left to thraw a shadow there
Owre een like milk-wort and milk-white cotton hair.

Milkwort and bog-cotton
Wad that nae leaf upon anither wheeled
A shadow either and nae root need dern
In sacrifice to let sic beauty be!
But deep surroondin' darkness I discern
Is aye the price o' licht. Wad licht revealed
Naething but you, and nicht nocht else concealed.

cwa' come away een eyes laich low lift sky dern hide

Poem: Milk-wort and Bog Cotton
Poet: Hugh MacDiarmid 1892-1978
Plant: Bog cotton or cotton grass Eriophorum angustifolium