Page:Barnes (1879) Poems of rural life in the Dorset dialect (combined).djvu/110

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94
POEMS OF RURAL LIFE.

While down at vword the brook so small,
 That leätely wer so high, O,
Wi’ little tinklèn sounds do vall
 In roun’ the stwones half dry, O;
While twilight ha’ sich aïr in store,
 To cool our zunburnt skin, O,
We’ll have a ramble out o’ door,
 When night’s a-zettèn in, O.

THE WEATHER-BEATEN TREE.

The woaken tree, a-beät at night
By stormy winds wi’ all their spite,
Mid toss his lim’s, an’ ply, an’ mwoan,
Wi’ unknown struggles all alwone;
An’ when the day do show his head,
A-stripp’d by winds at last a-laid,
How vew mid think that didden zee,
How night-time had a-tried thik tree.

An’ happy vo’k do seldom know
How hard our unknown storms do blow,
The while our heads do slowly bend
Below the trials God do zend,
Like shiv’rèn bennets, beäre to all
The drevèn winds o’ dark’nèn fall.
An’ zoo in tryèn hardships we
Be lik’ the weather beaten tree.

But He will never meäke our sheäre
O’ sorrow mwore than we can bear,
But meäke us zee, if ’tis His will,
That He can bring us good vrom ill;
As after winter He do bring,
In His good time, the zunny spring,
An’ leaves, an’ young vo’k vull o’ glee
A-dancèn roun’ the woaken tree.