University of Virginia Library

Search this document 
Poems of Rural Life in the Dorset Dialect

by William Barnes. Third Collection

collapse section
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
THE HOLLOW WOAK.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

THE HOLLOW WOAK.

The woaken tree, so hollow now,
To souls ov other times wer sound,
An' reach'd on ev'ry zide a bough
Above their heads, a-gather'd round,
But zome light veet
That here did meet
In friendship sweet, vor rest or jäÿ,
Shall be a-miss'd another Maÿ.
My childern here in plaÿvull pride
Did zit 'ithin his wooden walls,
A-mentèn steätely vo'k inside
O' cassle towers an' lofty halls,

30

But now the vloor
An' mossy door
That woonce they wore would be too small
To teäke em in, so big an' tall.
Theäse year do show, wi' snow-white cloud,
An' deäsies in a sprinkled bed,
An' green-bough birds a-whislèn loud,
The looks o' zummer days a-vled;
An' grass do grow,
An' men do mow,
An' all do show the wold times' feäce
Wi' new things in the wold things' pleäce.