Page:Barnes (1879) Poems of rural life in the Dorset dialect (combined).djvu/188

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Where perch did lie in sheädy holes
Below the alder trees, an’ shoals
O’ gudgeon darted by, to hide
Theirzelves in hollows by the zide.
An’ there by leänes a-windèn deep,
Wer mossy banks a-risèn steep;
An’ stwonèn steps, so smooth an’ wide,
To stiles an’ vootpaths at the zide.
An’ there, so big’s a little ground,
The geärden wer a-wall’d all round:
An’ up upon the wall wer bars
A-sheäped all out in wheels an’ stars,
Vor vo’k to walk, an’ look out drough
Vrom trees o’ green to hills o’ blue.
An’ there wer walks o’ peävement, broad
Enough to meäke a carriage-road.
Where steätely leädies woonce did use
To walk wi’ hoops an’ high-heel shoes,
When yonder hollow woak wer sound,
Avore the walls wer ivy-bound,
Avore the elems met above
The road between em, where they drove
Their coach all up or down the road
A-comèn hwome or gwaïn abroad.
The zummer air o’ theäse green hill
’V a-heav’d in bosoms now all still,
An’ all their hopes an’ all their tears
Be unknown things ov other years.
But if, in heaven, souls be free
To come back here; or there can be
An e’thly pleäce to meäke em come
To zee it vrom a better hwome,—
Then what’s a-twold us mid be right,
That still, at dead o’ tongueless night,
Their gauzy sheäpes do come an’ glide

By vootways o’ their youthvul pride,