Page:Barnes (1879) Poems of rural life in the Dorset dialect (combined).djvu/348

332 Sounded the midnight bell wi’ the hour, &emsp;&emsp;&emsp;&emsp;&emsp;&emsp;&emsp;&emsp;&emsp;&emsp;&emsp;&emsp;&emsp;—in the night, There lo! a bright-heäir’d angel that shed Light vrom her white robe’s zilvery thread, Put her vore-vinger up vor to meäke Silence around lest sleepers mid weäke, &emsp;&emsp;&emsp;&emsp;&emsp;&emsp;&emsp;&emsp;&emsp;&emsp;&emsp;&emsp;&emsp;—in the night. “Oh! then,” I whisper’d, do I behold &emsp;&emsp;&emsp;&emsp;&emsp;&emsp;&emsp;&emsp;&emsp;&emsp;&emsp;&emsp;&emsp;—in the night. Linda, my true-love, here in the cwold, &emsp;&emsp;&emsp;&emsp;&emsp;&emsp;&emsp;&emsp;&emsp;&emsp;&emsp;&emsp;&emsp;—in the night?” “No,” she meäde answer, “you do misteäke: She is asleep, but I that do weäke, Here be on watch, an’ angel a-blest, Over her slumber while she do rest, &emsp;&emsp;&emsp;&emsp;&emsp;&emsp;&emsp;&emsp;&emsp;&emsp;&emsp;&emsp;&emsp;—in the night.”

“Zee how the winds, while here by the bough, &emsp;&emsp;&emsp;&emsp;&emsp;&emsp;&emsp;&emsp;&emsp;&emsp;&emsp;&emsp;&emsp;—in the night, They do pass on, don’t smite on her brow, &emsp;&emsp;&emsp;&emsp;&emsp;&emsp;&emsp;&emsp;&emsp;&emsp;&emsp;&emsp;&emsp;—in the night; Zee how the cloud-sheädes naïseless do zweep Over the house-top where she’s asleep. You, too, goo by, in times that be near, You too, as I, mid speak in her ear &emsp;&emsp;&emsp;&emsp;&emsp;&emsp;&emsp;&emsp;&emsp;&emsp;&emsp;&emsp;&emsp;—in the night.”

all the meäds wi’ shoals an’ pools, Where streams did sheäke the limber zedge, An’ milkèn vo’k did teäke their stools, In evenèn zun-light under hedge: Ov all the wears the brook did vill, Or all the hatches where a sheet