| |
Dialect of Dorset
PENTRIDGE!—oh! my heart’s a-swellen | |
| Vull wi’ jay to hear ye tellen | |
| Any news o’ thik wold pleace, | |
| An’ the boughy hedges round it, | |
| An’ the river that do bound it | 5 |
| Wi’ his dark but glisnen feace. | |
| Vor there ’s noo land, on either hand, | |
| To me lik’ Pentridge by the river. | |
| |
| Be there any leaves to quiver | |
| On our aspen by the river? | 10 |
| Doo er sheade the water still, | |
| Where the rushes be a-growen, | |
| Where the sullen Stour ’s a-flowen | |
| Droo the meads vrom mill to mill? | |
| Vor if a tree wer’ dear to me, | 15 |
| Oh! ’t wer’ thik aspen by the river. | |
| |
| There, in eegrass newly shooten, | |
| I did run on even vooten, | |
| Happy, awver new-mown land; | |
| Or did zing wi’ zingen drushes | 20 |
| While I plaited, out o’ rushes, | |
| Little baskets vor my hand; | |
| Bezide the clote that there did float, | |
| Wi’ yollor blossoms, on the river. | |
| |
| When the western zun ’s a-vallen, | 25 |
| What shill vaice is now a-callen | |
| Hwome the deairy to the pails? | |
| Who do dreve em on, a-flingen | |
| Wide-bow’d horns, or slowly zwingen | |
| Right an’ left their tufty tails? | 30 |
| As they do goo a-huddled droo | |
| The geate a-leaden up vrom river. | |
| |
| Bleaded grass is now a-shooten | |
| Where the vloor wer’ oonce our vooten, | |
| While the hall wer’ still in pleace, | 35 |
| Stwones be looser in the wallen; | |
| Hollor trees be nearer vallen; | |
| Ev’ry thing ha’ chang’d its feace. | |
| But still the neame do bide the seame,— | |
| ’T is Pentridge,—Pentridge by the river. | 40 |
| |
