Poems of Rural Life in the Dorset Dialect/The Drèven o' the Common
THE DRÈVEN O’ THE COMMON.[1]
In the common by our hwome
There wer freely-open room,
Vor our litty veet to roam
By the vuzzen out in bloom.
That wi’ prickles kept our lags
Vrom the skylark’s nest ov aggs;
While the peewit wheel’d around
Wi’ his cry up over head,
Or he sped, though a-limpèn, o’er the ground.
There we heärd the whickr’èn meäre
Wi’ her vaïce a-quiv’rèn high;
Where the cow did loudly bleäre
By the donkey’s vallèn cry.
While a-stoopèn man did zwing
His bright hook at vuzz or ling
Free o’ fear, wi’ wellglov’d hands,
O’ the prickly vuzz he vell’d,
Then sweet-smell’d as it died in faggot bands.
When the haÿward drove the stock
In a herd to zome oone pleäce,
Thither vo’k begun to vlock,
Each to own his beästes feäce.
While the geese, bezide the stream,
Zent vrom gapèn bills a scream,
An’ the cattle then avound,
Without right o’ greäzen there,
Went to bleäre braÿ or whicker in the pound.
- ↑ The Driving of the Common was by the Hayward who, whenever he thought fit, would drive all the cattle into a corner and impound all heads belonging to owners without a right of commonage for them, so that they had to ransom them by a fine.