Second Collection. False Friends-like
When I wer still a bwoy, an’ mother’s pride, A bigger bwoy spoke up to me so kind-like, “If you do like, I’ll treat ye wi’ a ride In theäse wheel-barrow here.” Zoo I wer blind-like To what he had a-workèn in his mind-like, An’ mounted vor a passenger inside; An’ comèn to a puddle, perty wide, He tipp’d me in, a-grinnèn back behind-like. Zoo when a man do come to me so thick-like, An’ sheäke my hand, where woonce he pass’d me by, An’ tell me he would do me this or that, I can’t help thinkèn o’ the big bwoy’s trick-like. An’ then, vor all I can but wag my hat An’ thank en, I do veel a little shy.
William Barnes’s other poems:
