Poem by William Barnes

Second Collection. The Blackbird

’Twer out at Penley I’d a-past
A zummer day that went too vast,
An’ when the zettèn zun did spread
On western clouds a vi’ry red;
The elems’ leafy limbs wer still
Above the gravel-bedded rill,
An’ under en did warble sh’ill,
Avore the dusk, the blackbird.

An’ there, in sheädes o’ darksome yews,
Did vlee the maïdens on their tooes,
A-laughèn sh’ill wi’ merry feäce
When we did vind their hidèn pleäce.
’Ithin the loose-bough’d ivy’s gloom,
Or lofty lilac, vull in bloom,
Or hazzle-wrides that gi’ed em room
Below the zingèn blackbird.

Above our heads the rooks did vlee
To reach their nested elem-tree,
An’ splashèn vish did rise to catch
The wheelèn gnots above the hatch;
An’ there the miller went along,
A-smilèn, up the sheädy drong,
But yeet too deaf to hear the zong
A-zung us by the blackbird.

An’ there the sh’illy-bubblèn brook
Did leäve behind his rocky nook,
To run drough meäds a-chill’d wi’ dew,
Vrom hour to hour the whole night drough;
But still his murmurs wer a-drown’d
By vaïces that mid never sound
Ageän together on that ground,
Wi’ whislèns o’ the blackbird.

1. First Collection. Summer. Week’s End in Zummer, in the Wold Vo’k’s Time
2. Second Collection. The Linden on the Lawn
3. Second Collection. When Birds be Still
4. Third Collection. Went vrom Hwome
5. Third Collection. Shaftesbury Feäir

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