Page:Barnes (1879) Poems of rural life in the Dorset dialect (combined).djvu/328

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POEMS OF RURAL LIFE.

   Zoo luck betide
   The upland zide,
   Where wheat do wride,
   In corn-vields wide,
 By crowns o’ Do’set Downs, O.

An’ while the screamèn bird-bwoy shook
 Wi’ little zun-burnt hand,
His clacker at the bright-wing’d rook,
 About the zeeded land;
His meäster there did come an’ stop
 His bridle-champèn meäre,
Wi’ thankvul heart, to zee his crop
 A-comèn up so feäir.
   As there awhile
   By geäte or stile,
   He gi’ed the chile
   A cheerèn smile,
 By crowns o’ Do’set Downs, O.

At last, wi’ ears o’ darksome red,
 The yollow stalks did ply,
A-swaÿèn slow, so heavy ’s lead,
 In aïr a-blowèn by;
An’ then the busy reapers laid
 In row their russlèn grips,
An’ sheäves, a-leänèn head by head,
 Did meäke the stitches tips.
   Zoo food’s a-vound,
   A-comèn round,
   Vrom zeed in ground,
   To sheäves a-bound,
 By crowns o’ Do’set Downs, O.

An’ now the wheat, in lofty lwoads,
 Above the meäres’ broad backs,
Do ride along the cracklèn rwoads,

 Or dousty waggon-tracks.