Page:Barnes (1879) Poems of rural life in the Dorset dialect (combined).djvu/432

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been validated.
416
POEMS OF RURAL LIFE.

The while ageän my lwonesome ears
Did russle weatherbeäten spears,
Below the withy’s leafless head
That overhung the river’s bed;
I there did think o’ days that dried
The new-mow’d grass o’ zummer-tide,
When white-sleev’d mowers’ whetted bleädes
Rung sh’ill along the green-bough’d gleädes,
An’ maïdens gaÿ, wi’ plaÿsome chaps,
A-zot wi’ dinners in their laps,
Did talk wi’ merry words that rung
Around the ring, vrom tongue to tongue;
An’ welcome, when the leaves ha’ died,
Be zummer thoughts in winter-tide.

I’M OUT O’ DOOR.

I’m out, when, in the Winter’s blast,
 The zun, a-runnèn lowly round,
Do mark the sheädes the hedge do cast
 At noon, in hoarvrost, on the ground.
I’m out when snow’s a-lyèn white
 In keen-aïr’d vields that I do pass,
An’ moonbeams, vrom above, do smite
 On ice an’ sleeper’s window-glass.
    I’m out o’ door,
    When win’ do zweep,
    By hangèn steep,
    Or hollow deep,
        At Lindenore.

O welcome is the lewth a-vound
 By rustlèn copse, or ivied bank,
Or by the haÿ-rick, weather-brown’d

 By barken-grass, a-springèn rank;