Page:Barnes (1879) Poems of rural life in the Dorset dialect (combined).djvu/464

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POEMS OF RURAL LIFE.

An’ small the worold I could zee;
But then it had below the tree
My Fanny Deäne so good an’ feäir:
’Twer wide enough if she wer there.

An’ I’ve a house wi’ thatchen ridge,
Below the elems by the bridge:
Wi’ small-peän’d windows, that do look
Upon a knap, an’ ramblèn brook;
An’ small’s my house, my ruf is low,
But then who mid it have to show
But Fanny Deäne so good an’ feäir?
’Tis fine enough if peace is there.

BAD NEWS.

I do mind when there broke bitter tidèns,
  Woone day, on their ears,
An’ their souls wer a-smote wi’ a stroke
As the lightnèn do vall on the woak,
An’ the things that wer bright all around em
  Seem’d dim drough their tears.

Then unheeded wer things in their vingers,
  Their grief wer their all.
All unheeded wer zongs o’ the birds,
All unheeded the child’s perty words,
All unheeded the kitten a-rollèn
  The white-threaded ball.

Oh! vor their minds the daylight around em
  Had nothèn to show.
Though it brighten’d their tears as they vell,
An’ did sheen on their lips that did tell,
In their vaïces all thrillèn an’ mwoansome,
  O’ nothèn but woe.