First Collection. Sundry Pieces. The Bells ov Alderburnham
While now upon the win’ do zwell The church-bells’ evenèn peal, O, Along the bottom, who can tell How touch’d my heart do veel, O. To hear ageän, as woonce they rung In holidays when I wer young, Wi’ merry sound A-ringèn round, The bells ov Alderburnham. Vor when they rung their gaÿest peals O’ zome sweet day o’ rest, O, We all did ramble drough the viels, A-dress’d in all our best, O; An’ at the bridge or roarèn weir, Or in the wood, or in the gleäre Ov open ground, Did hear ring round The bells ov Alderburnham. They bells, that now do ring above The young brides at church-door, O, Woonce rung to bless their mother’s love, When they were brides avore, O. An’ sons in tow’r do still ring on The merry peals o’ fathers gone, Noo mwore to sound, Or hear ring round, The bells ov Alderburnham. Ov happy peäirs, how soon be zome A-wedded an’ a-peärted! Vor woone ov jaÿ, what peals mid come To zome o’s broken-hearted! The stronger mid the sooner die, The gaÿer mid the sooner sigh; An’ who do know What grief’s below The bells ov Alderburnham! But still ’tis happiness to know That there’s a God above us; An’ he, by day an’ night, do ho Vor all ov us, an’ love us, An’ call us to His house, to heal Our hearts, by his own Zunday peal Ov bells a-rung Vor wold an’ young. The bells ov Alderburnham.
William Barnes’s other poems:
