Dan Dwithen wer the chap to show
His naïghbours mwore than they did know,
Vor he could zee, wi’ half a thought,
What zome could hardly be a-taught;
An’ he had never any doubt
Whatever ‘twer, but he did know’t,
An’ had a-reach’d the bottom o’t,
Or soon could meäke it out.
Wi’ narrow feäce, an’ nose so thin
That light a’most shone drough the skin,
As he did talk, wi’ his red peäir
O’ lips, an’ his vull eyes did steäre,
What nippy looks friend Daniel wore,
An’ how he smiled as he did bring
Such reasons vor to clear a thing,
As dather’d vo’k the mwore!
When woonce there come along the road
At night, zome show-vo’k, wi’ a lwoad
Ov half the wild outlandïsh things
That crawl’d, or went wi’ veet, or wings;
Their elephant, to stratch his knees,
Walk’d up the road-zide turf, an’ left
His tracks a-zunk wi’ all his heft
As big’s a vinny cheese.
An’ zoo next mornèn zome vo’k vound
The girt round tracks upon the ground,
An’ view’d em all wi’ stedvast eyes,
An’ wi’ their vingers spann’d their size,
An’ took their depth below the brink:
An’ whether they mid be the tracks
O’ things wi’ witches on their backs,
Or what, they coulden think.
At last friend Dan come up, an’ brought
His wit to help their dizzy thought,
An’ lookèn on an’ off the ea’th,
He cried, a-drawèn a vull breath,
Why, I do know; what, can’t ye zee ‘t?
I’ll bet a shillèn ‘twer a deer
Broke out o’ park, an’ sprung on here,
Wi’ quoits upon his veet.
—————
The End
And that’s the End of the Poem
© Poetry Monster, 2021.
Poetry Monster — the ultimate repository of world poetry.
Poetry Monster — the multilingual library of poetic works. Here you’ll find original poems, poetry translations, ancient verses, ballads and even folk tales.
Poetry Monster (or even The Poetry Monster) — is also an international multilingual community of poets and poetry connoisseurs. Join us:
Some external links: The Bat’s Poetry Cave. — Fledermaus’s poetry site. Talking Writing Monster. — the irreverent and irrelevant chatter on subjects both serious and not quite. A free for all board. You can scribble anything on it without registration (but it doesn’t let spammers in). You can even post your poems. Qwant.com. — a search engine from France. It’s an alternative because there are a few alternatives, like Bing, Duckduckgo, and Ecosia. And there is Yandex, the ultimate language-oriented search engine for the Russophone world. Commercial Links: Russian Commerce – the foreign trade assistance agency Other links: Poems and poetry in Russian (if you are reading this in English, as you obviously are, then you’d have to switch the language, the language switch is on the menu. More on languages)