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.