Poems of Rural Life in the Dorset Dialect. Barnes William

      Jean ax'd what ribbon she should wear

      'Ithin her bonnet to the feäir?

      She had woone white, a-gi'ed her when

      She stood at Meäry's chrissenèn;

      She had woone brown, she had woone red,

      A keepseäke vrom her brother dead,

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      That she did like to wear, to goo

      To zee his greäve below the yew.

      She had woone green among her stock,

      That I'd a-bought to match her frock;

      She had woone blue to match her eyes,

      The colour o' the zummer skies,

      An' thik, though I do like the rest,

      Is he that I do like the best,

      Because she had en in her heäir

      When vu'st I walk'd wi' her at feäir.

      The brown, I zaid, would do to deck

      Thy heäir; the white would match thy neck;

      The red would meäke thy red cheäk wan

      A-thinkèn o' the gi'er gone;

      The green would show thee to be true;

      But still I'd sooner zee the blue,

      Because 'twer he that deck'd thy heäir

      When vu'st I walk'd wi' thee at feäir.

      Zoo, when she had en on, I took

      Her han' 'ithin my elbow's crook,

      An' off we went athirt the weir

      An' up the meäd toward the feäir;

      The while her mother, at the geäte,

      Call'd out an' bid her not staÿ leäte,

      An' she, a-smilèn wi' her bow

      O' blue, look'd roun' and nodded, No.

[page 28]

Eclogue.

       Table of Contents

THE 'LOTMENTS.

       Table of Contents

      John and Richard.

      JOHN.

      Zoo you be in your groun' then, I do zee,

      A-workèn and a-zingèn lik' a bee.

      How do it answer? what d'ye think about it?

      D'ye think 'tis better wi' it than without it?

      A-recknèn rent, an' time, an' zeed to stock it,

      D'ye think that you be any thing in pocket?

      RICHARD.

      O', 'tis a goodish help to woone, I'm sure o't.

      If I had not a-got it, my poor bwones

      Would now ha' eäch'd a-crackèn stwones

      Upon the road; I wish I had zome mwore o't.

      JOHN.

      I wish the girt woones had a-got the greäce

      To let out land lik' this in ouer pleäce;

      But I do fear there'll never be nwone vor us,

      An' I can't tell whatever we shall do:

      We be a-most starvèn, an' we'd goo

      To 'merica, if we'd enough to car us.

      RICHARD.

      Why 'twer the squire, good now! a worthy man,

      That vu'st brought into ouer pleäce the plan,

      He zaid he'd let a vew odd eäcres

      O' land to us poor leäb'rèn men;

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      An', faïth, he had enough o' teäkers

      Vor that, an' twice so much ageän.

      Zoo I took zome here, near my hovel,

      To exercise my speäde an' shovel;

      An' what wi' dungèn, diggèn up, an' zeedèn,

      A-thinnèn, cleänèn, howèn up an' weedèn,

      I, an' the biggest o' the childern too,

      Do always vind some useful jobs to do.

      JOHN.

      Aye, wi' a bit o' ground, if woone got any,

      Woone's bwoys can soon get out an' eärn a penny;

      An' then, by workèn, they do learn the vaster

      The way to do things when they have a meäster;

      Vor woone must know a deäl about the land

      Bevore woone's fit to lend a useful hand,

      In geärden or a-vield upon a farm.

      RICHARD.

      An' then the work do keep em out o' harm;

      Vor vo'ks that don't do nothèn wull be vound

      Soon doèn woorse than nothèn, I'll be bound.

      But as vor me, d'ye zee, with theäse here bit

      O' land, why I have ev'ry thing a'mwost:

      Vor I can fatten vowels for the spit,

      Or zell a good fat goose or two to rwoast;

      An' have my beäns or cabbage, greens or grass,

      Or bit o' wheat, or, sich my happy feäte is,

      That I can keep a little cow, or ass,

      An' a vew pigs to eat the little teäties.

JOHN.