Page:Barnes (1879) Poems of rural life in the Dorset dialect (combined).djvu/404

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POEMS OF RURAL LIFE.

Brighten’d streams, an’ dried the dew,
An’ the goocoo there did greet
Passers by wi’ dousty veet.

There the milkmaïd hung her brow
By the cow, a-sheenèn red;
An’ the dog, wi’ upward looks,
Watch’d the rooks above his head,
An’ the brook, vrom bow to bow,
Here went swift, an’ there wer slow.

Now the cwolder-blowèn blast,
Here do cast vrom elems’ heads
Feäded leaves, a-whirlèn round,
Down to ground, in yollow beds,
Ruslèn under milkers’ shoes,
When the day do dry the dews.

Soon shall grass, a-vrosted bright,
Glisten white instead o’ green,
An’ the wind shall smite the cows,
Where the boughs be now their screen.
Things do change as years do vlee;
What ha’ years in store vor me?


Eclogue.

RACKETÈN JOE.


Racketèn Joe; his Sister; his Cousin Fanny; and the Dog.


RACKETÈN JOE.

Heigh! heigh! here. Who’s about?