Poems of Rural Life in the Dorset Dialect/A Snowy Night

by William Barnes

A SNOWY NIGHT.

’Twer at night, an’ a keen win’ did blow
 Vrom the east under peäle-twinklèn stars,
All a-zweepèn along the white snow;
 On the groun’, on the trees, on the bars,
Vrom the hedge where the win’ russled drough,
 There a light-russlèn snow-doust did vall;
An’ noo pleäce wer a-vound that wer lew,
 But the shed, or the ivy-hung wall.

Then I knock’d at the wold passage door
 Wi’ the win’-driven snow on my locks;
Till, a-comèn along the cwold vloor,
 There my Jenny soon answer’d my knocks.
Then the wind, by the door a-swung wide,
 Flung some snow in her clear-bloomèn feäce,
An’ she blink’d wi’ her head all a-zide,
 An’ a-chucklèn, went back to her pleäce.

An’ in there, as we zot roun’ the brands,
 Though the talkers wer mainly the men,
Bloomèn Jeäne, wi’ her work in her hands,
 Did put in a good word now an’ then.
An’ when I took my leave, though so bleäk
 Wer the weather, she went to the door,
Wi’ a smile, an’ a blush on the cheäk
 That the snow had a-smitten avore.