Quick question

[conuly]

Poll #20788 If you're not actually quoting the poem....

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 108

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which are you more likely to say? "The best laid plans of mice and men"

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Often go awry
34 (35.1%)

Gang aft agley (and I speak like this all the time)
3 (3.1%)

Gang aft agley (and this is not my dialect)
60 (61.9%)

Before reading this question, were you aware that in the poem it's "schemes" and not "plans"?

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Yes
30 (27.8%)

No
78 (72.2%)

And of course here's the poem in question. Not speaking 18th century Scots I assume that breastie is intended to rhyme with beastie, that is, with a long e or the equivalent, but I'd rather read it so beastie is homophonous with bestie. That mouse is my bff!

(If you scroll down the page here you'll find the same poem again with a modern English translation.)

Comments

[deird1]

I only know it because it’s quoted in a Georgette Heyer murder mystery. And since the character in question is making gentle fun of his Scottish colleague, it was definitely “gang aft agley”.

[conuly]

I picked up the original quotation from 1960s Batman, of all places! Surprisingly erudite show.