 | Poems of Rural Life in Common English |  |
5
THE WOODSIDE ROAD.
As along by the wood of rustling beech,
And whispering pine without a breach,
I went where the gravel road did reach,
For men on their way to roam, O,
On homeward, or out from home, O.
And whispering pine without a breach,
I went where the gravel road did reach,
For men on their way to roam, O,
On homeward, or out from home, O.
A squire that rode a mare milkwhite,
Came on with a lady fair to sight,
All gleaming with gold, in blue bedight,
On a mettlesome bay to roam, O,
On homeward, or out from home, O.
Came on with a lady fair to sight,
All gleaming with gold, in blue bedight,
On a mettlesome bay to roam, O,
On homeward, or out from home, O.
6
For aught that I knew the woody ground
That then with their horses' hoofs did sound,
Was all their own land to ramble round
A half of the day, and roam, O,
On homeward, or out from home, O.
That then with their horses' hoofs did sound,
Was all their own land to ramble round
A half of the day, and roam, O,
On homeward, or out from home, O.
But then on a pony's tripping pace,
There came on a girl with sweetest face,
In brown, with a hood of grey, to trace
Her roadway so gay, and roam, O,
But where, aye where was her home, O?
There came on a girl with sweetest face,
In brown, with a hood of grey, to trace
Her roadway so gay, and roam, O,
But where, aye where was her home, O?
Below at the mill, the brook's low shore?
Or else at the wheelwright's paint-streak'd door?
Or else at the dairy's well-clean'd floor?
To start in the day to roam, O,
And come before night back home, O.
Or else at the wheelwright's paint-streak'd door?
Or else at the dairy's well-clean'd floor?
To start in the day to roam, O,
And come before night back home, O.
7
I never would care for gold or land,
But only would ask her heart and hand,
And one little stable, where might stand
Her pony with hay, to roam, O,
With mine for her happy home, O.
But only would ask her heart and hand,
And one little stable, where might stand
Her pony with hay, to roam, O,
With mine for her happy home, O.
| Poems of Rural Life in Common English | |