half-sarket

Updated: July 13, 2026

That question Burns answered when he sat down by the ingle-cheek, and, looking backward, mused on the years of youth that had been spent 'in stringing blethers up in rhyme for fools to sing. He saw what he might have been; he knew too well what he was 'half-mad, half-fed, half-sarket. Yet the picture of what he might have been he dismissed lightly, almost disdainfully; for he saw what he might be yet what he should be.

Gabriel Setoun - Robert Burns: Famous Scots Series