Third Collection. The New House a-gettèn Wold
Ah! when our wedded life begun, Theäse clean-wall’d house of ours wer new; Wi’ thatch as yollor as the zun Avore the cloudless sky o’ blue; The sky o’ blue that then did bound The blue-hilled worold’s flow’ry ground. An’ we’ve a-vound it weather-brown’d, As Spring-tide blossoms oben’d white, Or Fall did shed, on zunburnt ground, Red apples from their leafy height: Their leafy height, that Winter soon Left leafless to the cool-feäced moon. An’ raïn-bred moss ha’ stain’d wi’ green The smooth-feäced wall’s white-morter’d streaks, The while our childern zot between Our seats avore the fleäme’s red peaks: The fleäme’s red peaks, till axan white Did quench em vor the long-sleep’d night The bloom that woonce did overspread Your rounded cheäk, as time went by, A-shrinkèn to a patch o’ red, Did feäde so soft’s the evenèn sky: The evenèn sky, my faithful wife, O’ days as feäir’s our happy life.
William Barnes’s other poems:
