Fireblossom Friday: a poem within a poem

It gets a little complicated, and I haven't made it any clearer by my choice, which is written in English with a dash of auld Scots, but no Gaelic. However, my friend Fireblossom, one of the better poets I know, has asked us to write a story within a poem, with reference to a favourite poem by someone else.
Of course, certainly, very simple when you put it that way.

So I have chosen one of my favourite poets, Robbie Burns, and, foregoing the temptations of mouses and louses, I have chosen something that became a rallying call and the party song of the Scottish National Party. It is sung at the close of their annual national conference each year.

Wikimedia Commons

And, for The Imaginary Garden with Real Toads, here is my attempt at a poem-story containing more than one reference to a favourite of mine.

We were sitting on the

dock of the bay one day,

my friend and I,

and he asked if I

had ever played a musical instrument.

I tried, said I,

but failed, you see

because I could not learn to read

the music.

I thought I’d be

a piper once, and

joined a pipe band, yes, I did,

but failed because

I could not read

the music.

Robert the Bruce
(with axe)
from Wikipedia

However, I

could salve my pride,

because I was the only one

who’d memorized the title of

the first tune in the songbook:

Scots Wha Hae wi’ Wallace Bled or Bruce’s

Address to his Troops at Bannockburn.

    

“What?” asked my friend, sitting up,

“what in the world did you just say?”

“Scots wha hae...”

I slowly said,

“er, Scots who Have with Wallace Bled,

which Robbie Burns wrote to represent
Robert-the-Bruce’s speech to his troops
before the Battle of Bannockburn.”

“Robert the who? Battle of what?”

“Scottish history,”

This depiction from the

Scotichronicon (c.1440)

is the earliest known image

 of (Bannockburn).

Robert wielding an axe

 and Edward II fleeing

toward Stirling.

Wikipedia

I replied patiently,

“in 1314, although Robbie Burns

 wrote it in 1793.”

“More than 400 years later?”

exclaimed my friend,

“why did he care by then?”

“Why did he care?”

said I, aghast,

“It was Scotland.
And they still care now.”

(“Really? Sort of like 1812?”

“Sort of, but more important.”

“More important than beating
the US of A?”

“There wasn’t any US of A in 1314,

or any Canada, either,
for that matter.”)

“Well, what else did Robbie Burns

say that Robert-the-Bruce said?

And who was Robert-the-Bruce, anyway?”

“He was King of Scotland

in the thirteen-hundreds,

and a hero to Scots forever

after defeating the English at Bannockburn.”

'Wha, for Scotland's king and law,

Freedom's sword will strongly draw,

Freeman stand, or Freeman fa,

Let him on wi me.

'Lay the proud usurpers low,

William Wallace
from Wikipedia

Tyrants fall in every foe,

Libertie's in every blow! 

Let us do or dee.'

For poetic purists, and I'm not naming any names, you can also find it in Scots Gaelic HERE, but truly, Burns wrote it in auld Scots and not in Gaelic at a' at a' ...and if you're wondering who Wallace was, he died before Bannockburn, and you can read about that here.