Page:Barnes (1879) Poems of rural life in the Dorset dialect (combined).djvu/167

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church at Grenley woone mid zee A beam vrom wall to wall; a tree That’s longer than the church is wide, An’ zoo woone end o’n’s drough outside,— Not cut off short, but bound all round Wi’ lead, to keep en seäfe an’ sound.

Back when the builders vu’st begun The church,—as still the teäle do run,— A man work’d wi’ em; no man knew Who ’twer, nor whither he did goo. He wer as harmless as a chile, An’ work’d ’ithout a frown or smile, Till any woaths or strife did rise To overcast his sparklèn eyes:

An’ then he’d call their minds vrom strife, To think upon another life. He wer so strong, that all alwone He lifted beams an’ blocks o’ stwone, That others, with the girtest païns, Could hardly wag wi’ bars an’ chaïns; An’ yet he never used to staÿ O’ Zaturdays, to teäke his paÿ.

Woone day the men wer out o’ heart, To have a beam a-cut too short; An’ in the evenèn, when they shut Off work, they left en where ’twer put; An’ while dumb night went softly by Towárds the vi’ry western sky, A-lullèn birds, an’ shuttèn up The deäisy an’ the butter cup,