English Poetry. William Barnes. First Collection. Spring. Jenny’s Ribbons. Уильям Барнс.

William Barnes (Уильям Барнс)

First Collection. Spring. Jenny’s Ribbons

Jean ax’d what ribbon she should wear
’Ithin her bonnet to the feäir?
She had woone white, a-gi’ed her when
She stood at Meäry’s chrissenèn;
She had woone brown, she had woone red,
A keepseäke vrom her brother dead,
That she did like to wear, to goo
To zee his greäve below the yew.

She had woone green among her stock,
That I’d a-bought to match her frock;
She had woone blue to match her eyes,
The colour o’ the zummer skies,
An’ thik, though I do like the rest,
Is he that I do like the best,
Because she had en in her heäir
When vu’st I walk’d wi’ her at feäir

The brown, I zaid, would do to deck
Thy heäir; the white would match thy neck;
The red would meäke thy red cheäk wan
A-thinkèn o’ the gi’er gone;
The green would show thee to be true;
But still I’d sooner zee the blue,
Because ’twer he that deck’d thy heäir
When vu’st I walk’d wi’ thee at feäir.

Zoo, when she had en on, I took
Her han’ ’ithin my elbow’s crook.
An’ off we went athirt the weir
An’ up the meäd toward the feäir;
The while her mother, at the geäte,
Call’d out an’ bid her not staÿ leäte,
An’ she, a-smilèn wi’ her bow
O’ blue, look’d roun’ and nodded, No.

William Barnes’s other poems:

1. First Collection. Winter. Keepèn up o’ Chris’mas
2. Third Collection. Comen Hwome
3. Second Collection. Slow to come, quick agone
4. Second Collection. John Bleäke at Hwome
5. Third Collection. Things do Come Round

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