William Barnes

Second Collection. Meäry Wedded

The zun can zink, the stars mid rise,
An’ woods be green to sheenèn skies;
The cock mid crow to mornèn light,
An’ workvo’k zing to vallèn night;
The birds mid whissle on the spraÿ,
An’ childern leäp in merry plaÿ,
But our’s is now a lifeless pleäce,
Vor we’ve a-lost a smilèn feäce—
  Young Meäry Meäd o’ merry mood,
  Vor she’s a-woo’d an’ wedded.

The dog that woonce wer glad to bear
Her fondlèn vingers down his heäir,
Do leän his head ageän the vloor,
To watch, wi’ heavy eyes, the door;
An’ men she zent so happy hwome
O’ Zadurdays, do seem to come
To door, wi’ downcast hearts, to miss
Wi’ smiles below the clematis,
  Young Meäry Meäd o’ merry mood,
  Vor she’s a-woo’d an’ wedded.

When they do draw the evenèn blind,
An’ when the evenèn light’s a-tin’d,
The cheerless vier do drow a gleäre
O’ light ageän her empty chair;
An’ wordless gaps do now meäke thin
Their talk where woonce her vaïce come in.
Zoo lwonesome is her empty pleäce,
An’ blest the house that ha’ the feäce
  O’ Meäry Meäd, o’ merry mood,
  Now she’s a-woo’d and wedded.

The day she left her father’s he’th,
Though sad, wer kept a day o’ me’th,
An’ dry-wheel’d waggons’ empty beds
Wer left ’ithin the tree-screen’d sheds;
An’ all the hosses, at their eäse,
Went snortèn up the flow’ry leäse,
But woone, the smartest for the roäd,
That pull’d away the dearest lwoad—
  Young Meäry Meäd o’ merry mood,
  That wer a-woo’d an’ wedded.