Poems of Rural Life in the Dorset Dialect :: :: University of Virginia Library

Oh! what a lot.—
O' what? O' what?—
Why blackberries, as thick
As ever they can stick.—
I've dewberries; oh! twice
As good as they: so nice.—
Come here. Oh! do but look!—
What now? what now?—
Why nuts, a-slippèn shell.—
Hee! hee!—Pull down the bough.—
There, half o'm be a-vell.—
Look there; oh! quick! be quick!—
What is it? where?—
A rabbit—no—a heäre.—
Ooh! ooh! the thorns do prick.—
Now mind the thissles—hee! hee! hee!
Why they be knapweeds—no—they be.—
I've zome'at in my shoe.—
Zit down an' sheäke it out.—
Oh! emmets! oh! ooh! ooh!—
A-crawlèn all about.—
What bird is that? Hark! hush!
How sweetly he do zing!—
A nightèngeäle—a drush.—
A nightèngeäle by day! Hee! hee!—
Oh! here's a funny thing.
Ooh! There's a hornet!—waps!—a bee!—
Oh! what wer that so white,
Rush'd out o' thik tree's top?—
An owl.—How I did hop.—
How I do sheäke wi' fright.—

130

A musheroom. Here.—Lau!—
A twoadstool; pweison; augh!—
What's that?—an evet—no.—
Oh! ooh! ooh! 'Tis a shrow!—
Don't let en run athirt
Your voot. —Here: hark! what wer't
A-rumblèn? There's a clap
O' thunder.—Oh! do raïn.
I velt a drap.—
Oh! run wi' might an' maïn.—
Oh! I've a-got the stitch!—
Oh! I've a-lost my shoe!—
There's Fanny into ditch!—
I'm wet all drough an' drough!

The idea, though but little of the substance, of this piece, will be found in a little Italian poem called Caccia, and written by Franco Sacchetti.

The folklore is, that if a shrew-mouse run over a person's foot, it will lame him.