<P> One of the most distinctive features of the poem is its language . MacDiarmid's literary Scots is principally rooted in his own Borders dialect, but freely draws on a wide range of idiom and vocabulary, both current and historic, from different regions of Scotland . The work, though sometimes loose and idiosyncratic, did much to increase awareness of the potential for Scots as a medium of universal literary expression at a time when this was not well appreciated . Its expressive drive is integral to the entire effect of the poem . </P> <P> Some of the poem's initial sections include interpolated Scots translations of other European poets, including Blok and Lasker - Schüler . These introduce the mysterious and lyrical tone that begins to offset the comic persona of the poem's thrawn narrator . </P> <P> MacDiarmid claimed for his poem national literary ambitions similar to those Joyce did for Ulysses in Ireland . </P> <Ul> <Li> Jean </Li> <Li> The Thistle </Li> <Li> Robert Burns </Li> <Li> 1926 General Strike </Li> <Li> Sexual Reproduction (Science) </Li> <Li> Undersea Life </Li> <Li> Bannockburn and Flodden </Li> </Ul>

A drunk man looks at the thistle english translation