Page:Barnes (1879) Poems of rural life in the Dorset dialect (combined).djvu/414

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POEMS OF RURAL LIFE.

Till day do call the sons o’ men
 Vrom night-sleep’s blackness, vull o’ sprackness,
Out abroad to tweil ageän.

Where the vaïce o’ the winds is mildest,
 In the plaïn, their stroke is keen;
Where their dreatnèn vaïce is wildest,
 In the grove, the grove’s our screen.
An’ where the worold in their strife
Do dreatèn mwost our tweilsome life,
Why there Almighty ceäre mid cast
A better screen ageän the blast.
Zoo I woon’t live in fear o’ men,
 But, man-neglected, God-directed,
Still wull tweil an’ tweil ageän.

FANCY.

In stillness we ha’ words to hear,
 An’ sheäpes to zee in darkest night,
An’ tongues a-lost can haïl us near,
 An’ souls a-gone can smile in zight;
When Fancy now do wander back
 To years a-spent, an’ bring to mind
 Zome happy tide a-left behind
In’ weästèn life’s slow-beatèn track.

When feädèn leaves do drip wi’ raïn,
 Our thoughts can ramble in the dry;
When Winter win’ do zweep the plaïn
 We still can have a zunny sky.
Vor though our limbs be winter-wrung,
 We still can zee, wi’ Fancy’s eyes,
 The brightest looks ov e’th an’ skies,
That we did know when we wer young.