Poems of Rural Life in the Dorset Dialect/My Orcha'd in Lindèn Lea

1524329Poems of Rural Life in the Dorset Dialect — My Orcha’d in Lindèn LeaWilliam Barnes

MY ORCHA’D IN LINDEN LEA

’Ithin the woodlands, flow’ry gleäded,
 By the woak tree’s mossy moot,
The sheenèn grass-bleädes, timber-sheäded,
 Now do quiver under voot;
An’ birds do whissle over head,
An’ water’s bubblèn in its bed,
An’ there vor me the apple tree
Do leän down low in Linden Lea.

When leaves that leätely wer a-springèn
 Now do feäde ’ithin the copse,
An’ païnted birds do hush their zingèn
 Up upon the timber’s tops;
An’ brown-leav’d fruit’s a-turnèn red,
In cloudless zunsheen, over head,
Wi’ fruit vor me, the apple tree
Do leän down low in Linden Lea.

Let other vo’k meäke money vaster
 In the aïr o’ dark-room’d towns,
I don’t dread a peevish meäster;
 Though noo man do heed my frowns,
I be free to goo abrode,
Or teäke ageän my hwomeward road
To where, vor me, the apple tree
Do leän down low in Linden Lea.