Poem by William Barnes

Third Collection. The New House a-gettèn Wold

Ah! when our wedded life begun,
 Theäse clean-wall’d house of ours wer new;
Wi’ thatch as yollor as the zun
 Avore the cloudless sky o’ blue;
The sky o’ blue that then did bound
The blue-hilled worold’s flow’ry ground.

An’ we’ve a-vound it weather-brown’d,
 As Spring-tide blossoms oben’d white,
Or Fall did shed, on zunburnt ground,
 Red apples from their leafy height:
Their leafy height, that Winter soon
Left leafless to the cool-feäced moon.

An’ raïn-bred moss ha’ stain’d wi’ green
 The smooth-feäced wall’s white-morter’d streaks,
The while our childern zot between
 Our seats avore the fleäme’s red peaks:
The fleäme’s red peaks, till axan white
Did quench em vor the long-sleep’d night

The bloom that woonce did overspread
 Your rounded cheäk, as time went by,
A-shrinkèn to a patch o’ red,
 Did feäde so soft’s the evenèn sky:
The evenèn sky, my faithful wife,
O’ days as feäir’s our happy life.

1. Second Collection. Light or Sheäde
2. Third Collection. Shaftesbury Feäir
3. Third Collection. The Neäme Letters
4. Third Collection. Tweil
5. Second Collection. Slow to come, quick agone

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