Page:Barnes (1879) Poems of rural life in the Dorset dialect (combined).djvu/42

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26
POEMS OF RURAL LIFE.

When evenèn’s risèn moon did peep
Down drough the hollow dark an’ deep,
Where gigglèn sweethearts meäde their vows
In whispers under waggèn boughs;
When whisslèn bwoys, an’ rott’lèn ploughs
 Wer still, an’ mothers, wi’ their thin
 Shrill vaïces, call’d their daughters in,
  From walkèn in the hollow;

What souls should come avore my zight,
But they that had your zummer light?
The litsome younger woones that smil’d
Wi’ comely feäzen now a-spweil’d;
Or wolder vo’k, so wise an’ mild,
 That I do miss when I do goo
 To zee the pleäce, an’ walk down drough
  The lwonesome woody hollow?

When wrongs an’ overbearèn words
Do prick my bleedèn heart lik’ swords,
Then I do try, vor Christes seäke,
To think o’ you, sweet days! an’ meäke
My soul as ’twer when you did weäke
 My childhood’s eyes, an’ when, if spite
 Or grief did come, did die at night
  In sleep ’ithin the hollow.

JENNY’S RIBBONS.

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,