Page:Barnes (1879) Poems of rural life in the Dorset dialect (combined).djvu/57

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snow-white clouds wer thin an’ vew Avore the zummer sky o’ blue, An’ I’d noo ho but how to vind Zome plaÿ to entertaïn my mind; Along the water, as did wind &emsp;Wi’ zedgy shoal an’ hollow crook, &emsp;How I did ramble by the brook &emsp;That ran all down vrom gramfer’s.

A-holdèn out my line beyond The clote-leaves, wi’ my withy wand, How I did watch, wi’ eager look, My zwimmèn cork, a-zunk or shook By minnows nibblèn at my hook, &emsp;A-thinkèn I should catch a breäce &emsp;O’ perch, or at the least some deäce, &emsp;A-zwimmèn down vrom gramfer’s.

Then ten good deäries wer a-ved Along that water’s windèn bed, An’ in the lewth o’ hills an’ wood A half a score farm-housen stood: But now,—count all o’m how you would, &emsp;So many less do hold the land,— &emsp;You’d vind but vive that still do stand, &emsp;A-comèn down vrom gramfer’s.

There, in the midst ov all his land, The squier’s ten-tunn’d house did stand, Where he did meäke the water clim’ A bank, an’ sparkle under dim Bridge arches, villèn to the brim &emsp;His pon’, an’ leäpèn, white as snow, &emsp;Vrom rocks a-glitt’rèn in a bow, &emsp;An’ runnèn down to gramfer’s.