Page:Oxford Book of English Verse 1250-1918.djvu/1028

 THOMAS HARDY

Far. 'Ye mid zell my favourite heifer, ye mid let the

charlock grow,

Foul the grinterns, give up thrift.' e* 'If ye break my best blue china, children, I shan't care or ho.'

��AIL 'We've no wish to hear the tidings, how the people's

fortunes shift;

What your daily doings are;

Who are wedded, born, divided; if your lives beat slow or swift.

��'Curious not the least are we if our intents you make or

mar,

If you quire to our old tune, If the City stage still passes, if the weirs still roar afar.'

��Thus, with very gods' composure, freed those crosses

late and soon

Which, in life, the Trine allow

(Why, none witteth), and ignoring all that haps beneath the moon,

��William Dewy, Tranter Reuben, Farmer Ledlow late at

plough,

Robert's kin, and John's, and Ned's, And the Squire, and Lady Susan, murmur mildly to me

now.

�� �