Page:Barnes (1879) Poems of rural life in the Dorset dialect (combined).djvu/175

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THE STWONEN PWORCH.
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THE STWONÈN PWORCH

A new house! Ees, indeed! a small
Straïght, upstart thing, that, after all,
Do teäke in only half the groun’
The wold woone did avore ’twer down;
Wi’ little windows straïght an’ flat,
Not big enough to zun a-cat,
An’ dealèn door a-meäde so thin,
A puff o’ wind would blow en in,
Where woone do vind a thing to knock
So small’s the hammer ov a clock,
That wull but meäke a little click
About so loud’s a clock do tick!
Gi’e me the wold house, wi’ the wide
An’ lofty-lo’ted rooms inside;
An’ wi’ the stwonfèn pworch avore
The naïl-bestudded woaken door,
That had a knocker very little
Less to handle than a bittle,
That het a blow that vied so loud
Drough house as thunder drough a cloud,
An’ meäde the dog behind the door
Growl out so deep’s a bull do roar.

In all the house, o’ young an’ wold,
There werden woone but could a-twold
When he’d noo wish to seek abrode
Mwore jaÿ than thik wold pworch bestow’d!
For there, when yollow evenèn shed
His light ageän the elem’s head,
An’ gnots did whiver in the zun,
An’ uncle’s work wer all a-done,
His whiffs o’ meltèn smoke did roll
Above his bendèn pipe’s white bowl,