Page:Barnes (1879) Poems of rural life in the Dorset dialect (combined).djvu/159

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THE COMMON A-TOOK IN.
143

While the peewit wheel’d around
Wi’ his cry up over head,
Or he sped, though a-limpèn, o’er the ground.

There we heärd the whickr’èn meäre
Wi’ her vaïce a-quiv’rèn high;
Where the cow did loudly bleäre
By the donkey’s vallèn cry.
While a-stoopèn man did zwing
His bright hook at vuzz or ling
Free o’ fear, wi’ wellglov’d hands,
O’ the prickly vuzz he vell’d,
Then sweet-smell’d as it died in faggot bands.

When the haÿward drove the stock
In a herd to zome oone pleäce,
Thither vo’k begun to vlock,
Each to own his beästes feäce.
While the geese, bezide the stream,
Zent vrom gapèn bills a scream,
An’ the cattle then avound,
Without right o’ greäzen there,
Went to bleäre braÿ or whicker in the pound.

THE COMMON A-TOOK IN.

Oh! no, Poll, no! Since they’ve a-took
The common in, our lew wold nook
Don’t seem a-bit as used to look
 When we had runnèn room;
Girt banks do shut up ev’ry drong,
An’ stratch wi’ thorny backs along
Where we did use to run among
 The vuzzen an’ the broom.