Sundry Pieces: The Wold Waggon
The girt wold waggon uncle had,
When I wer up a hardish lad,
Did stand, a-screen’d vrom het an’ wet,
In zummer at the barken geaete,
Below the elems’ spreaeden boughs,
A-rubb’d by all the pigs an’ cows.
An’ I’ve a-clom his head an’ zides,
A-riggen up or jumpen down
A-playen, or in happy rides
Along the leaene or drough the groun’,
An’ many souls be in their greaeves,
That rod’ together on his reaeves;
An’ he, an’ all the hosses too,
‘V a-ben a-done vor years agoo.
Upon his head an’ tail wer pinks,
A-painted all in tangled links;
His two long zides wer blue,—his bed
Bent slightly upward at the head;
His reaeves rose upward in a bow
Above the slow hind-wheels below.
Vour hosses wer a-kept to pull
The girt wold waggon when 'twer vull;
The black meaere _Smiler_, strong enough
To pull a house down by herzuf,
So big, as took my widest strides
To straddle halfway down her zides;
An’ champen _Vi’let_, sprack an’ light,
That foam’d an’ pull’d wi’ all her might:
An’ _Whitevoot_, leaezy in the treaece,
Wi’ cunnen looks an’ show-white feaece;
Bezides a bay woone, short-tail _Jack_,
That wer a treaece-hoss or a hack.
How many lwoads o’ vuzz, to scald
The milk, thik waggon have a-haul’d!
An’ wood vrom copse, an’ poles vor rails.
An’ bayens wi’ their bushy tails;
An’ loose-ear’d barley, hangen down
Outzide the wheels a’most to groun’,
An’ lwoads o’ hay so sweet an’ dry,
A-builded straight, an’ long, an’ high;
An’ hay-meaekers, a-zitten roun’
The reaeves, a-riden hwome vrom groun’,
When Jim gi’ed Jenny’s lips a-smack,
An’ jealous Dicky whipp’d his back,
An’ maidens scream’d to veel the thumps
A-gi’ed by trenches an’ by humps.
But he, an’ all his hosses too,
‘V a-ben a-done vor years agoo.
Altre opere di William Barnes...
