s: And his voice thrills up to the topmost tiles:


s: Each listener chokes as he bows and bends,


s: And emotion pervades the crowded aisles.


s: Then the preacher glides to the vestry-door,


s: And shuts it, and thinks he is seen no more.


s: Who adores him as one without gloss or guile,


s: Sees her idol stand with a satisfied smile


s: "Sixpence a week," says the girl to her lover,


s: "Aunt used to bring me, for she could confide


s: The cost of her headstone when she died.


s: I've not yet fixed it.  But I must soon."


s: "O, snug in my purse . . . Aunt was SO slow


s: In saving it--eighty weeks, or near." . . .


s: "Let's spend it," he hints.  "For she won't know.


s: There's a dance to-night at the Load of Hay."


s: She passively nods.  And they go that way.


s: "Would it had been the man of our wish!"


s: Sighs her mother.  To whom with vehemence she


s: "But Father and you should have stood out strong!


s: Since then, to my cost, I have lived to find


s: That you were right and that I was wrong;


s: This man is a dolt to the one declined . . .


s: Ah!--here he comes with his button-hole rose.


s: The man and his friend, and regard the bay


s: Where the far chalk cliffs, to the left displayed,


s: And saunterers pass with laugh and jest -


s: "That smart proud pair," says the man to his friend,


s: "Are to marry next week . . . How little he thinks


s: I have stroked her neck, unhooked the links


s: Of her sleeve to get at her upper arm . . .


s: Well, bliss is in ignorance:  what's the harm!"


s: "You see those mothers squabbling there?"


s: One says in tears, ''Tis mine lies here!'


s: And put your own on this grave of ours!'


s: But all their children were laid therein


s: At different times, like sprats in a tin.


s: And packed them away in the general foss


s: With hundreds more.  But their folks don't know,


s: "My stick!" he says, and turns in the lane


s: To the house just left, whence a vixen voice


s: Comes out with the firelight through the pane,


s: And he sees within that the girl of his choice


s: Stands rating her mother with eyes aglare


s: Thinks the man who had loved her more than himself;


s: "My God--'tis but narrowly I have escaped. -


s: And he steals off, leaving his stick unclaimed.


s: He enters, and mute on the edge of a chair


s: Sits a thin-faced lady, a stranger there,


s: And by some small signs he well can guess


s: That she comes to him almost breakfastless.


s: My patience to offer them."  And she smiles


s: "But the truth of it is that oftenwhiles


s: "My bride is not coming, alas!" says the groom,


s: And the telegram shakes in his hand.  "I own


s: It was hurried!  We met at a dancing-room


s: And then, next night, where the Fountain leaps,


s: And the Street of the Quarter-Circle sweeps.


s: "Ay, she won me to ask her to be my wife -


s: 'Twas foolish perhaps!--to forsake the ways


s: Of the flaring town for a farmer's life.


s: She agreed.  And we fixed it.  Now she says:


s: 'It's sweet of you, dear, to prepare me a nest,


s: But a swift, short, gay life suits me best.


s: What I really am you have never gleaned;


s: I had eaten the apple ere you were weaned.'"


s: "O that mastering tune?"  And up in the bed


s: Like a lace-robed phantom springs the bride;


s: "And why?" asks the man she had that day wed,


s: With a start, as the band plays on outside.


s: "O but you don't know!  'Tis the passionate air


s: And I swore as we spun that none should share


s: My home, my kisses, till death, save he!


s: And he dominates me and thrills me through,


s: And it's he I embrace while embracing you!"


s: "But hear.  If you stay, and the child be born,


s: It will pass as your husband's with the rest,


s: Will be gleaming at us from east to west;


s: And the child will come as a life despised;


s: Lest the truth should out.  How can I stay here,


s: Let us go, and face it, and bear the shame."


s: "I stood at the back of the shop, my dear,


s: Well, when they deliver what you were shown


s: _I_ shall know nothing of it, believe me!"


s: And he coughed and coughed as she paled and said,


s: Why couldn't you speak?"--"Well, I didn't.  I left


s: That you should not notice I'd been there.


s: "You were viewing some lovely things.  'Soon required


s: And I knew 'twould upset you to meet the man


s: "And screwed in a box before they could dress you


s: As they defined it.  So, not to distress you,


s: "I'll tell--being past all praying for -


s: Then promptly die . . . He was out at the war,


s: And he stole back home, and appeared like a ghost


s: That I reached her house.  Well, I shot him dead,


s: And secretly buried him.  Nothing was said.


s: He was scheduled missing.  I hurried away,


s: And sent home word that a search revealed


s: He was one of the slain; though, lying alone


s: And stript, his body had not been known.


s: Yea, my hope of earth, and of Heaven above;


s: And my time's now come, and I'll pay the score,


s: They stand confronting, the coffin between,


s: And the dead man whose they both had been


s: Seems listening aloof, as to things past date.


s: --"I have called," says the first.  "Do you marvel or not?"


s: "In truth," says the second, "I do--somewhat."


s: "Well, there was a word to be said by me! . . .


s: And both of us, scorning parochial ways,


s: Had lived like the wives in the patriarchs' days."


s: At her grave, as no other grave there were?


s: Her soul by the shine of this corpse-cold moon,


s: "Why, fool, it is what I would rather see


s: Through good and evil, through rain and drought,


s: And when she passed, all your sun went out?"


s: "Nay:  she was the woman I did not love,


s: Whom during her life I thought nothing of."


s: And billed long straws with a bustling air,


s: That he followed, alone, without interest there.


s: Would dip from the nearest slatestone ledge.


s: And flashes of white, and a sail thereon,


s: But specious plans that came to his call


s: As he was, and should have been shown, that day.


s: At a focussed distance, and conned the whole,


s: Nor soothes his body nor saves his soul.


s: Waves like distant cannonades that set the land shaking.


s: Where I burst on her my heart could not but follow.


s: Beech leaves, that yellow the noon-time,


s: And the children who ramble through here


s: That light has won a fraction's strength,


s: Weeks hence, mild airs that do not numb;


s: Fetched back from its thickening shroud of gray.


s: About three spans wide and two spans tall


s: And into a scoop of the self-same block;


s: In stir of kingdoms, in wars, in peaces;


s: And has spoken since hills were turfless peaks."


s: And why does plunging your arm in a bowl


s: Full of spring water, bring throbs to your soul?


s: Well, under the fall, in a crease of the stone,


s: Though where precisely none ever has known,


s: Jammed darkly, nothing to show how prized,


s: And by now with its smoothness opalized,


s: Of blue with a leaf-woven awning of green,


s: In the burn of August, to paint the scene,


s: And we placed our basket of fruit and wine


s: By the runlet's rim, where we sat to dine;


s: And when we had drunk from the glass together,


s: Arched by the oak-copse from the weather,


s: Where it slipped, and sank, and was past recall,


s: Though we stooped and plumbed the little abyss


s: With long bared arms.  There the glass still is.


s: From the past awakens a sense of that time,


s: And the glass both used, and the cascade's rhyme.


s: The hard smooth face of the brook-side ledge,


s: The hanging plants that were bathing there.


s: By night, by day, when it shines or lours,


s: And its presence adds to the rhyme of love


s: No lip has touched it since his and mine


s: In turns therefrom sipped lovers' wine."


s: "I'll mend these miseries," then said I,


s: That nought should keep our souls in severance,


s: But I was called from earth--yea, called


s: Eyes couched of the mis-vision that blurred me -


s: You would close your term here, up and be gone


s: At the end of the alley of bending boughs


s: Did we not think of those days long dead,


s: That time's renewal?  We might have said,


s: To sink down soon . . . O you could not know


s: And you told of the charm of that haloed view


s: As alien from you, though under its tree


s: I drove not with you . . . Yet had I sat


s: At your side that eve I should not have seen


s: Had a last-time look in the flickering sheen,


s: Nor have read the writing upon your face,


s: "You may miss me then.  But I shall not know


s: There never at all.  And I shall not care.


s: Should you censure me I shall take no heed


s: And even your praises I shall not need."


s: True:  never you'll know.  And you will not mind.


s: But shall I then slight you because of such?


s: Dear ghost, in the past did you ever find


s: You are past love, praise, indifference, blame.


s: Of the look of a room on returning thence.


s: He does not think that I haunt here nightly:


s: That whither his fancy sets him wandering


s: But cannot answer his words addressed me -


s: When I could answer he did not say them:


s: How I would like to join in his journeys


s: Into old aisles where the past is all to him,


s: Always lacking the power to call to him,


s: Still that his path may be worth pursuing,


s: Woman much missed, how you call to me, call to me,


s: When you had changed from the one who was all to me,


s: Can it be you that I hear?  Let me view you, then,


s: Standing as when I drew near to the town


s: Where you would wait for me:  yes, as I knew you then,


s: Or is it only the breeze, in its listlessness


s: Travelling across the wet mead to me here,


s: You being ever consigned to existlessness,


s: Wind oozing thin through the thorn from norward


s: I come across from Mellstock while the moon wastes weaker


s: To behold where I lived with you for twenty years and more:


s: I shall go in the gray, at the passing of the mail-train,


s: And need no setting open of the long familiar door


s: The change I notice in my once own quarters!


s: A brilliant budded border where the daisies used to be,


s: The rooms new painted, and the pictures altered,


s: And other cups and saucers, and no cozy nook for tea


s: I discern the dim faces of the sleep-wrapt servants;


s: They are not those who tended me through feeble hours and strong,


s: Who never saw me painting, never heard my softling song


s: So I don't want to linger in this re-decked dwelling,


s: I feel too uneasy at the contrasts I behold,


s: And I make again for Mellstock to return here never,


s: And rejoin the roomy silence, and the mute and manifold


s: And this gay-pictured, spring-time shout


s: Why go to Saint-Juliot?  What's Juliot to me?


s: That much of my life claims the spot as its key.


s: Yes.  I have had dreams of that place in the West,


s: Fair-eyed and white-shouldered, broad-browed and brown-tressed.


s: And of how, coastward bound on a night long ago,


s: And other than nigh things uncaring to know.


s: So sweet her life there (in my thought has it seemed)


s: And lodge her long years with me.  Such have I dreamed.


s: But nought of that maid from Saint-Juliot I see;


s: The woman I thought a long housemate with me?


s: Does there even a place like Saint-Juliot exist?


s: Or Beeny, or Bos with its flounce flinging mist?


s: Whither, O whither will its whim now draw me?


s: Up the cliff, down, till I'm lonely, lost,


s: And the unseen waters' ejaculations awe me.


s: Where you will next be there's no knowing,


s: And gray eyes, and rose-flush coming and going.


s: Yes:  I have re-entered your olden haunts at last;


s: Through the years, through the dead scenes I have tracked you;


s: What have you now found to say of our past -


s: Viewed across the dark space wherein I have lacked you?


s: Summer gave us sweets, but autumn wrought division?


s: But all's closed now, despite Time's derision.


s: I see what you are doing:  you are leading me on


s: To the spots we knew when we haunted here together,


s: The waterfall, above which the mist-bow shone


s: At the then fair hour in the then fair weather,


s: And the cave just under, with a voice still so hollow


s: That it seems to call out to me from forty years ago,


s: And not the thin ghost that I now frailly follow!


s: Ignorant of what there is flitting here to see,


s: The waked birds preen and the seals flop lazily,


s: Soon you will have, Dear, to vanish from me,


s: For the stars close their shutters and the dawn whitens hazily.


s: Trust me, I mind not, though Life lours,


s: The bringing me here; nay, bring me here again!


s: Our days were a joy, and our paths through flowers.


s: O the opal and the sapphire of that wandering western sea,


s: And the woman riding high above with bright hair flapping free -


s: The woman whom I loved so, and who loyally loved me.


s: The pale mews plained below us, and the waves seemed far away


s: A little cloud then cloaked us, and there flew an irised rain,


s: And the Atlantic dyed its levels with a dull misfeatured stain,


s: And then the sun burst out again, and purples prinked the main.


s: --Still in all its chasmal beauty bulks old Beeny to the sky,


s: And shall she and I not go there once again now March is nigh,


s: And the sweet things said in that March say anew there by and by?


s: And nor knows nor cares for Beeny, and will see it nevermore.


s: As I drive to the junction of lane and highway,


s: And the drizzle bedrenches the waggonette,


s: And see on its slope, now glistening wet,


s: In dry March weather.  We climb the road


s: What we did as we climbed, and what we talked of


s: Something that life will not be balked of


s: It filled but a minute.  But was there ever


s: A time of such quality, since or before,


s: In that hill's story?  To one mind never,


s: Though it has been climbed, foot-swift, foot-sore,


s: Primaeval rocks form the road's steep border,


s: And much have they faced there, first and last,


s: Of the transitory in Earth's long order;


s: And to me, though Time's unflinching rigour,


s: Remains on the slope, as when that night


s: I look and see it there, shrinking, shrinking,


s: For the very last time; for my sand is sinking,


s: Where chanced, in the hollow of years ago,


s: What none of the Three Towns cared to know--


s: The sweetest the house saw, first or last;


s: In a room by the Hoe, like the bud of a flower,


s: And listened, just after the bedtime hour,


s: To the stammering chimes that used to play


s: The quaint Old Hundred-and-Thirteenth tune


s: Upon Boterel Hill, where the carters skid,


s: Nay:  one there is to whom these things,


s: Have a savour that scenes in being lack,


s: And a presence more than the actual brings;


s: Of this vision of his they might say more:


s: Does he carry this vision of heretofore:


s: A ghost-girl-rider.  And though, toil-tried,


s: Draws rein and sings to the swing of the tide.


s: 'Love, while you were away there came to me -


s: And weighed me with a wearing wistfulness,


s: Perhaps she was some dame the Fates constrain


s: By memories sadder than she can support,


s: "Ah, but she knew me.  And before this time


s: To my light outdoor words, and pondering each,


s: Her frail white finger swayed in pantomime,


s: As if she fain would close with me in speech,


s: "And once I saw her beckoning with her hand


s: At an upper window.  And I at last went out;


s: But when I reached where she had seemed to stand,


s: And wandered up and down and searched about,


s: Then thought I how my dead Love used to say,


s: Was waning wan, that she would hover round


s: Cold-lipped, unconscious, wet to the knee,


s: "I told him I wished him dead," said she.


s: Whom I had loved, whom I well loved still;


s: Why do you harbour that great cheval-glass


s: Or look in a week at your full-length figure -


s: I used to gaze at the parson's daughter,


s: "Thither there came a lover and won her,


s: Followed by news that her mind lost balance,


s: "Soon sank her father; and next was the auction -


s: "Well, I awaited the sale and bought it . . .


s: Anon I shall break it and bury its fragments


s: Of the ocean, like a hammering in a hollow tomb,


s: With gray ponderings why my Loved one had not come before


s: Quaint, and remote--wherein I now expectant sate;


s: Every fire-flecked nook of the apartment span by span.


s: But vaguely, as if wrapt in filmy phantasies.


s: That soon I judged he would not wrong my quietude.


s: (There was no wine, no food, no supper-table spread.)


s: The self-same curious querying in your eyes and air.


s: What, is it not as when I hither came from town?


s: "And the place . . . But you seem other -


s: YOU dwell here, unknown woman? . . . Whereabouts, then, is she?


s: "And the house--things are much shifted. -


s: Here was the couch:  and the piano should be there."


s: And feigned to push the old piano where he had shown.


s: She makes attempt with matron-manners to preside.


s: And embarrassed, scared, she vanishes away!"


s: And retreated, disappearing soundless in the mist.


s: And that by its strong spell mine might be overturned.


s: An emanation, making our due words fall tame,


s: And left no room for later passion anywhere.


s: By the weird witchery of the parlour's hidden tale,


s: Where the predestined sorrowers first stood face to face.


s: I am conscious of those presences, and sit spellbound.


s: On that strange night, or was it some wrecked heart indeed?


s: That love's dull smart distressed my heart


s: He searched for the trace of a pictured face,


s: She charged me with having said this and that


s: Bent the spring of the spirit more and more . . .


s: - So charged she me; and the Cupid's bow


s: Of her mouth was hard, and her eyes, and her face,


s: Had she done it gently, or shown a trace


s: From the fall of each word, and the pause between,


s: Ere long, in our play of slave and queen.


s: For the name had reached him through the door


s: But she was discreet in the games she played;


s: "Yes, being a stranger he sees her blent


s: That night there was the splash of a fall


s: And she, in her cloud of loose lank hair,


s: As the dawn drew in on their faces there.


s: From a white hotel on a white-stoned quay,


s: And painting their pillows with dyes of red.


s: "What strange disquiets have stirred you, dear,


s: This dragging night, with starts in fear


s: What should one fear from a man whom few,


s: In that late long spell of delays undue!"


s: (For what quite lightly your lip assures


s: That has troubled my sleep, and no waking cures!" . . .


s: "I have shaped my will; 'tis at hand," said he;


s: "I subscribe it to-day, that no risk there be


s: Signed, sealed by my lord as it were a debt,


s: "But you flung my arms away from your side,


s: "Ah--had you a male friend once loved well,


s: The stillness other than, stroke by stroke,


s: "I once had a friend--a Love, if you will -


s: In a prison-cell for a deed of ill . . .


s: "He remained alone; and we met--to love,


s: Though we prized each other all else above.


s: "And this was why, though I'd touched my prime,


s: Till friends, who approved you, called it crime,


s: I took you . . . Ah, that such could be! . . .


s: "Now, saw you when crossing from yonder shore


s: "Well, while you stood at the other end,


s: The loungers talked, and I could but lend


s: For they named the dead.  'Twas the wife of my friend.


s: "He was there, but did not note me, veiled,


s: Yet I saw that a joy, as of one unjailed,


s: He knew not his hope of me just had failed!


s: "They had brought her home:  she was born in this isle;


s: "--So you've lost a sprucer spouse than I!"


s: For his pleasure's sake, but could lip no lie.


s: "One far less formal and plain and slow!"


s: He had said, and wed me he vowed he would


s: For a letter, addressed in my maiden name,


s: "And it started a hope like a lightning-streak


s: That I might go to him--say for a week -


s: "To be sure you have said, as of dim intent,


s: "And my heart has quailed.--But deny it true


s: In the light of the angry morning cloud.


s: And his features froze.  "You may take it as true


s: The pain of learning there's more to know."


s: You have told me enough to make me blink!


s: "And you became as his wife?"--"I did." -


s: No matter.  You're mine, whatever you ye hid!"


s: (As I thought), my fame, for I was not brave!"


s: "To save your fame?  Your meaning is dim,


s: There might be fruit of my tie with him;


s: "And to cloak it by marriage I'm not the first,


s: And strict uprightness.  That's the worst!


s: Convinced me that love like his endures,


s: Had been his, in fact, and not truly yours."


s: "So, my lady, you raise the veil by degrees . . .


s: That you soiled the contract in time of stress,


s: By the feared results of your wantonness.


s: "But the thing is over, and no one knows,


s: And it's nought to the future what you disclose.


s: "No:  I'll not free you.  And if it appear


s: There was too good ground for your first fear


s: I'll father the child.  Yes, by God, my dear.


s: "Even should you fly to his arms, I'll damn


s: And whip you home.  That's the sort I am!"


s: She whitened. "Enough . . . Since you disapprove


s: "Then swear it," he said, "and your king uncrown."


s: He drew her forth in her long white gown,


s: "Good.  Now you may go and again lie down


s: "Since you've played these pranks and given no sign,


s: You shall crave this man of yours; pine and pine


s: 'Till I've starved your love for him; nailed you mine.


s: "I'm a practical man, and want no tears;


s: Is a lesson I'll teach you in future years."


s: With her dark dry eyes on the coppery sea,


s: Flung its lazy flounce at the neighbouring quay.


s: And book and bell, at length I have come


s: I have eaten the fat and drunk the sweet,


s: Since, as with them, what kingship would


s: At Westminster, hid from the light of day,


s: Many who once had shone as monarchs lay.


s: The second Richard, Henrys three or four;


s: That is to say, those who were called the Third,


s: Fifth, Seventh, and Eighth (the much self-widowered),


s: And James the Scot, and near him Charles the Second,


s: And, too, the second George could there be reckoned.


s: And William's Mary, and Mary, Queen of Scots,


s: And consort-queens whose names oblivion blots;


s: And several more whose chronicle one sees


s: - Now, as they drowsed on, freed from Life's old thrall,


s: And heedless, save of things exceptional,


s: Said one:  "What means this throbbing thudding sound


s: That reaches to us here from overground;


s: "A sound of chisels, augers, planes, and saws,


s: "And these tons-weight of timber on us pressed,


s: "Surely, at least to us, being corpses royal,


s: "--Perhaps a scaffold!" Mary Stuart sighed,


s: "If such still be.  It was that way I died."


s: "--Ods!  Far more like," said he the many-wived,


s: "That for a wedding 'tis this work's contrived.


s: "Ha-ha!  I never would bow down to Rimmon,


s: But I had a rare time with those six women!"


s: "Not all at once?" gasped he who loved confession.


s: "Nay, nay!" said Hal.  "That would have been transgression."


s: "--They build a catafalque here, black and tall,


s: Perhaps," mused Richard, "for some funeral?"


s: And Anne chimed in:  "Ah, yes:  it maybe so!"


s: "Nay!" squeaked Eliza.  "Little you seem to know -


s: "Clearly 'tis for some crowning here in state,


s: As they crowned us at our long bygone date;


s: "Though we'd no such a power of carpentry,


s: "If I were up there where the parsons sit,


s: In one of my gold robes, I'd see to it!"


s: "But you are not," Charles chuckled.  "You are here,


s: And never will know the sun again, my dear!"


s: "Yea," whispered those whom no one had addressed;


s: "With slow, sad march, amid a folk distressed,


s: We were brought here, to take our dusty rest.


s: "And here, alas, in darkness laid below,


s: We'll wait and listen, and endure the show . . .


s: Clamour dogs kingship; afterwards not so!"


s: The chimes called midnight, just at interlune,


s: And the daytime talk of the Roman investigations


s: Was checked by silence, save for the husky tune


s: The bubbling waters played near the excavations.


s: And a warm air came up from underground,


s: And a flutter, as of a filmy shape unsepulchred,


s: That collected itself, and waited, and looked around:


s: Nothing was seen, but utterances could be heard:


s: Those of the goddess whose shrine was beneath the pile


s: Of the God with the baldachined altar overhead:


s: "And what did you get by raising this nave and aisle


s: Close on the site of the temple I tenanted?


s: "The notes of your organ have thrilled down out of view


s: To the earth-clogged wrecks of my edifice many a year,


s: Though stately and shining once--ay, long ere you


s: "Your priests have trampled the dust of mine without rueing,


s: Despising the joys of man whom I so much loved,


s: Though my springs boil on by your Gothic arcades and pewing,


s: And sculptures crude . . . Would Jove they could be removed!"


s: "--Repress, O lady proud, your traditional ires;


s: You know not by what a frail thread we equally hang;


s: It is said we are images both--twitched by people's desires;


s: And that I, like you, fail as a song men yesterday sang!"


s: And the olden dark hid the cavities late laid bare,


s: And all was suspended and soundless as before,


s: Except for a gossamery noise fading off in the air,


s: And the boiling voice of the waters' medicinal pour.


s: "A woman never agreed to it!" said my knowing friend to me.


s: "That one thing she'd refuse to do for Solomon's mines in fee:


s: No woman ever will make herself look older than she is."


s: I did not answer; but I thought, "you err there, ancient Quiz."


s: It took a rare one, true, to do it; for she was surely rare -


s: As rare a soul at that sweet time of her life as she was fair.


s: And urging motives, too, were strong, for ours was a passionate


s: Yea, passionate enough to lead to freaking with that young face.


s: I have told no one about it, should perhaps make few believe,


s: But I think it over now that life looms dull and years bereave,


s: How blank we stood at our bright wits' end, two frail barks in


s: How self-regard in her was slain by her large tenderness.


s: I said:  "The only chance for us in a crisis of this kind


s: And we blanched her dark locks ruthlessly:  set wrinkles on her


s: Ay--she was a right rare woman then, whatever she may be now.


s: That night we heard a coach drive up, and questions asked below.


s: "A gent with an elderly wife, sir," was returned from the bureau.


s: How many years ago it was!  Some fifty can it be


s: Since that adventure held us, and she played old wife to me?


s: But in time convention won her, as it wins all women at last,


s: The nightmares neighed from their stalls


s: The vampires screeched, the harpies flew,


s: Though if it were we should well combine.


s: Had you wept; had you but neared me with a frail uncertain ray,


s: Dewy as the face of the dawn, in your large and luminous eye,


s: Then would have come back all the joys the tidings had slain that


s: Ay, though you suffer as much as I from storms the hours are


s: Upon your heart and mine, I never see you shed a tear.


s: The deep strong woman is weakest, the weak one is the strong;


s: The weapon of all weapons best for winning, you have not used;


s: Has not the gift been given you, or such gift have you refused?


s: When I bade me not absolve you on that evening or the morrow,


s: Why did you not make war on me with those who weep like rain?


s: You felt too much, so gained no balm for all your torrid sorrow,


s: And hence our deep division, and our dark undying pain.


s: I am sure it's a dream that cannot be true,


s: "What do you see in that time-touched stone,


s: But ashen blankness, although you give it


s: "It is only the base of a pillar, they'll tell you,


s: "Paul as he stood and preached beside it


s: A small gaunt figure with wasted features,


s: "Words that in all their intimate accents


s: That marble front, and were far reflected,


s: "I'm a labouring man, and know but little,


s: But I can't help thinking that stone once echoed


s: "Man, you too, aren't you, one of these rough followers of the


s: All hanging hereabout to gather how he's going to bear


s: Examination in the hall."  She flung disdainful glances on


s: The shabby figure standing at the fire with others there,


s: "Ha, ha!" then laughed the constables who also stood to warm


s: The while another maiden scrutinized his features hard,


s: Exclaiming, "Why, last night when he was brought in by the guard,


s: He uses in his answers; you can hear him up the stairs.


s: So own it.  We sha'n't hurt ye.  There he's speaking now!  His


s: Are those you sound yourself when you are talking unawares,


s: "And you shudder when his chain clinks!" she rejoined.  "O yes, I


s: And you winced, too, when those cuffs they gave him echoed to us


s: They'll soon be coming down, and you may then have to defend


s: Unless you hold your tongue, or go away and keep you clear


s: "No!  I'll be damned in hell if I know anything about the man!


s: No single thing about him more than everybody knows!


s: - His face convulses as the morning cock that moment crows,


s: Did they weigh me falsely, to my bitter wrong,


s: But they all have shrunk away into the silence


s: On the once reverberate words of hatred uttered


s: They lie and wait what next the Will commands,


s: And doubtless think, if think they can:  'Let discord


s: May be as near defacement at their grave-place


s: Him their chief enemy--one whose brain had schemed


s: To get their dingy greatness deeplier dingied


s: He mused on them and on their once renown,


s: And said, "I'll seek their resting-place to-morrow


s: Renew their names, that men may see some liegeness


s: And sought the church he had known them to frequent,


s: And wandered in the precincts, set on eyeing


s: He stood at length beside their slighted bed,


s: Above which, truly, scarce a line or letter


s: Their graven worth, their chronicle, their date!


s: At once I'll garnish and revive the record


s: In pensive progress here where they decay,


s: 'This stone records a luminous line whose talents


s: For a form shadowed where they lay inurned,


s: And he beheld a stranger in foreign vesture,


s: That ancestors of mine should interest you,


s: For I have come of purpose here to trace them . . .


s: Sculptors can cure.  On the Pacific coast


s: I have vowed for long that relics of my forbears


s: Before this same old Time shall strike me numb,


s: To carry it out."--"Strange, this is!" said the other;


s: Though these my father's enemies were and mine,


s: I nourished a like purpose--to restore them


s: Is now not needed, sir; for you will see


s: That since I am here, a thing like this is, plainly,


s: Of some fair object he had been moved to cherish,


s: The phantoms of the ensepulchred stood up-right


s: Before him, trembling that he had set him seeking


s: Asked as with terrors founded not on truth


s: Why he should want them.  "Ha," they hollowly hackered,


s: Our graven worth, our chronicle, our date,


s: That our descendant may not gild the record


s: In pensive progress near where we decay:


s: 'This stone records a luminous line whose talents


s: And to that town and churchyard never bent


s: His ageing footsteps till, some twelvemonths onward,


s: And, stirred by hauntings, he must needs repair


s: To where the tomb was.  Lo, it stood still wasting


s: The last time," said the sexton, "has not yet


s: Appeared again, though wealth he had in plenty.


s: And came here on smart summons as desired,


s: But never the descendant came to tell him


s: Untouched, untended, crumbling, weather-stained,


s: And though the one-time foe was fain to right it


s: I am sure he'll come no more.  Best wait till then."


s: But so it was that never the stranger entered


s: That no return of the family's foreign scion


s: And active church-restorers cast their eye


s: Upon the ancient garth and hoary building


s: Pulled out the stately pews, and smartened all,


s: "It will be well," declared the spruce church-warden,


s: Nothing prevents it but an old tombstone


s: Depend on't, all who care for them are dead."


s: So went the tomb, whose shards were as path-paving


s: Men's footsteps beat, and wind and water-spout,


s: Until the names, aforetime gnawed by weathers,


s: In pensive progress near where they decay,


s: "This stone records a luminous line whose talents


s: Ecstatically I moved, and feared no night.


s: But deemed that what was would be always so.


s: Thinking it good and glorious to be born.


s: Dreaming, "I grieve not, therefore nothing grieves."


s: And hinds will sing, and autumn insects hum.


s: And junketings; but I shall not be there.


s: Those songs we sang when we went gipsying.


s: In coupled figures, and forget mischance;


s: For I shall mind not, slumbering peacefully.


s: Where yours and mine can be natural lives,


s: Where no one comes who dissects and dives


s: And proclaims that ours is a curious case,


s: That its touch of romance can scarcely grace.


s: You would think it strange at first, but then


s: Everything has been strange in its time.


s: When some one said on a day of the prime


s: None will recognize us as a pair whose claims


s: To righteous judgment we care not making;


s: Who have doubted if breath be worth the taking,


s: And have no respect for the current fames


s: Whence the savour has flown while abide the names.


s: We have found us already shunned, disdained,


s: And for re-acceptance have not once striven;


s: The brunt thereof we have long sustained.


s: "No smoke spreads out of this chimney-pot,


s: The people who lived here have left the spot,


s: And others are coming who knew them not.


s: The voices, you'll find, will be different


s: From the well-known ones of those who went."


s: "They look for a new life, rich and strange;


s: Wherever they may, they will get no change.


s: "They will drag their house-gear ever so far


s: In their search for a home no miseries mar;


s: They will find that as they were they are,


s: Till they move perforce--no time to pack!"


s: In his early days he was quite surprised


s: While she lifted orbs aggrieved and round


s: That she was the wicked one--he the good.


s: "O he's suffering--maybe dying--and I not there to aid,


s: And smooth his bed and whisper to him!  Can I nohow go?


s: Only the nurse's brief twelve words thus hurriedly conveyed,


s: "He was the best and brightest!--candour shone upon his brow,


s: And I shall never meet again a soldier such as he,


s: And I loved him ere I knew it, and perhaps he's sinking now,


s: - The yachts ride mute at anchor and the fulling moon is fair,


s: And the giddy folk are strutting up and down the smooth parade,


s: And in her wild distraction she seems not to be aware


s: But has vowed and wived herself to one who blessed the ground she


s: To and from his scene of ministry, and thought her history known


s: In its last particular to him--aye, almost as to God,


s: So great her absentmindedness she droops as in a swoon,


s: And a movement of aversion mars her recent spousal grace,


s: And in silence we two sit here in our waning honeymoon


s: What now I see before me is a long lane overhung


s: With lovelessness, and stretching from the present to the grave.


s: You sent through the crack," sighed she.


s: Her postures, glassed in the gloom there,


s: As he trod up that rise in the twilight,


s: When I said to myself, "Ah--what ails me,


s: - Her spouse the vicar, gardening, said,


s: And plunged into the wood untraced . . .


s: "To-day," he said, "you have shown good sense,


s: I guess what impels him to scrape and scan;


s: Yea, his dreams of that Empire long decayed.


s: "Vast was Rome," he must muse, "in the world's regard,


s: Vast it looms there still, vast it ever will be;"


s: And he stoops as to dig and unmine some shard


s: Left by those who are held in such memory.


s: But no; in his basket, see, he has brought


s: A little white furred thing, stiff of limb,


s: Whose life never won from the world a thought;


s: It is this, and not Rome, that is moving him.


s: And to make it a grave he has come to the spot,


s: And he delves in the ancient dead's long home;


s: Their fames, their achievements, the man knows not;


s: The furred thing is all to him--nothing Rome!


s: "Here say you that Caesar's warriors lie? -


s: But my little white cat was my only friend!


s: Could she but live, might the record die


s: Of Caesar, his legions, his aims, his end!"


s: Well, Rome's long rule here is oft and again


s: And the small furred life was worth no one's pen;


s: Yet its mourner's mood has a charm for me.


s: "The shingled pattern that seems to cease


s: When he must have left there earlier than


s: "Full soon the four weeks neared their end


s: And when the four weeks neared their end,


s: 'One more thing, and the charms you prize


s: "I said:  'I am one who has gathered gear


s: Thus did he speak--this brother of mine -


s: To dare the deed some coming night . . .


s: They had heard a crash when twelve had chimed


s: When twelve had chimed and moonlight climbed;


s: I dogged her, crying:  "Across that plank


s: Which night still covers . . . But in dream


s: - Home-coming thence he tossed and turned


s: Throughout the night till the new sun burned.


s: You have hammered, fitted, muttered, planned;


s: "You have thumped as you were working hard:


s: I might have found me bruised and scarred.


s: "This long-vogued style is quite outworn!


s: "To carry it out I have tried and toiled,


s: - So passed that day, the next, the next;


s: Where practice in the craft had failed . . .


s: Through freezing rain, that drenched the board


s: The chalk-scratched draught-board faced the rain,


s: So that they streamed in small white threads


s: - At once, with eyes that struck out sparks,


s: Templates were cut, fresh lines were chalked


s: Where lines had been defaced and balked,


s: And the work swelled and mounted higher,


s: "We knew," men said, "the thing would go


s: "And, once fulfilled what he has designed,


s: Homed to his wife and seemed to grieve . . .


s: For hatching art that hatched itself? . . .


s: "What!" said she.  "Praise your works ensure


s: In your loved craft curtailed your rest -


s: But he--chafed, childlike, in extremes -


s: That late had gathered round his name . . .


s: Chanced it that, one day, much impressed,


s: Who struck each arc, and made each mould;


s: "Things fail to spring from nought at call,


s: The tracery-stalks by spandrels stopped,


s: (Which, if but short for sleepy squires,


s: Though modes have since moved many a mile!


s: The steel-roped plough now rips the vale,


s: Wired wheels drum out the wheat like hail;


s: Since your bright leaves first saw the sun,


s: Throughout the race, the world had gained! . . .


s: For thickest boots the shoes were doffed -


s: From her wrecked dream, as months flew on,


s: Ah--what coach comes with furtive glide -


s: It comes to fetch the last year's bride,


s: She clapped her hands, flushed joyous hues;


s: And I still left where the fair was? . . .


s: Thoroughfare, steeple, bridge and highway


s: Two bright-souled women loved him well."


s: and sooin, in the north-east feeal and seean.  Both the


s: south-west and the north-east have a word praad--with a


s: vowel--sound like the a in father--but whereas in the south-


s: west it stands for proud, in the north-east it stands for


s: As already stated, its rebirth dates from the second half of the


s: "It's a good horse that duz never stumble,


s: And a good wife that duz never grumble."


s: "Neare is my sarke, but nearer is my skin."


s: "For change of pastures macks fat cawves, it's said,


s: But change of women macks lean knaves, I'se flaid


s: sweetheart who comes courting her on "Setterday neets." What is


s: recorded.  In John Hartley, Halifax possessed the most versatile


s: Yorkshireman, Francis Brokesby, rector of Rowley in the East


s: Riding, communicated with Ray about dialect words in use in


s: his district.  See Ray's Collection of English Words, second


s: the English Dialect Society's volume, Nine Specimens of


s: The title of the first (? pirated) edition runs as follows:


s: A Wonder; or, An Honest Yorkshire-man. A Ballad Opera; As it


s: is Performed at the Theatres with Universal Applause. In the


s: second edition the words, "A Wonder," disappear from the


s: with the title, Poems and Songs in the Dialect of Bradford


s: of The Peace Egg, with an attempt by the editor of this


s: anthology to throw light upon its inner meaning, in the


s: second volume of Essays and Studies of the English


s: Printed at York as a broadside by Stephen Bulkley in 1673.


s: The original broadside is lost, but a manuscript transcript of it


s: Madden's books and papers, and published by him in volume xxxii.


s: of the Dialect Society's Transactions, 1896.


s: AWD WIFE. Pretha now, lass, gang into t' hurn(1)


s: I's mar my deagh,(3) thou stays sae lang.


s: LASS. Why, Gom,(4) I's gea, bud, for my pains,


s: You's gie me a frundel(5) o' your grains.


s: AWD WIFE. My grains, my barn! Marry! not I;


s: My draugh's(6) for t' gilts an' galts(7) i' t' sty.


s: LASS. Blukrins! they'll put,(10) I dare not gang


s: LASS. Gom, t' great bull-segg(16) he's brokken lowse,


s: An' he, he's hiked(17) your broad-horned owse;


s: An' t' owse is fall'n into t' swine-trough,


s: I think he's brokken his cameril-hough.(18)


s: AWD WIFE. Whaw! Whaw! lass, mak heaste to t' smedy,(19)


s: He's noo dead, for he rowts(20) already;


s: He's boun; oh! how it bauks an' stangs!(21)


s: His lisk(22) e'en bumps an' bobs wi' pangs.


s: His dew-lap's swelled, he cannot hoast.(24)


s: He beals(25); tak t' barghams(26) off o' t' beams


s: An' fetch some breckons(27) frae the clames.(28)


s: Frae t' banks go fetch me a weam-tow(29)


s: Put t' wyes(34) amell(35) yon stirks an' steers


s: An' hang'd 't by t' swipple(43) on a nail;


s: An' sware he'd ding your owse i' t' harns.(46)


s: He stack his shak-fork up i' t' esins(47)


s: An' teuk his jerkin off o' t' gresins.(48)


s: Then teuk his mittens, reached his bill,


s: To kep t' owse blude in. Leuk, he's coom.


s: AWD WIFE. Than reach a thivel(51) or a strum(52)


s: BUTCHER. Hough-band him, tak thir(55) weevils hine(56)


s: F'rae t' rape's end; this is not a swine


s: Till I coom stick him. Where's my swill?(57)


s: Coom hither, lass; haud, haud, haud still.


s: LASS. What mun I do wi' t' blude?  BUTCHER. Thou fool,


s: Good beef, by t' mass! an' when 'tis hung


s: An' whan neist mell(59) we mak a lurry(60)


s: A piece o' this frae t' kimlin(61) browt


s: AWD WIFE. Maut-hearted(62) fool, I e'en could greet(63)


s: An', please, you too. BUTCHER. Why, Gom Green?


s: Nea men o' t' earth boast greater worth,


s: Sea great a maand(1) is ne'er confaand(2)


s: They gie un meast praise whea weel displays


s: This was written at the time of the Enclosure Acts


s: which robbed the peasent farmer of his rights to use Commons.


s: Afore larks sing, or early cocks 'gin Crow,


s: As I've for thee, ungrateful maiden, done,


s: To help thee milking, e'er day wark begun?


s: And when thy well-stripp'd kye(1) would yield no more,


s: Still on my head the reeking kit(2) I bore.


s: And, Oh! bethink thee, then, what lovesome talk


s: We've held together, ganging down the balk,


s: Maund'ring(3) at time which would na for us stay,


s: But now, I ween, maes(4) no such hast away.


s: And there again them leetsome days restore,


s: Where, unassail'd by meety(5) folk in power,


s: Our cattle yet may feed, tho' Snaith Marsh be no more.


s: But wae is me! I wot I fand(6) am grown,


s: The banns last Sunday in the church were bid.


s: But let me, let me first i' t' churchyard lig,


s: For soon I there must gang, my grief's so big.


s: All others in their loss some comfort find;


s: Though Ned's like me reduc'd, yet Jenny's kind,


s: And though his fleece no more our parson taks,


s: And roast goose, dainty food, our table lacks,


s: Yet he, for tithes ill paid, gets better land,


s: My adlings wared,(7) and yet my rent to pay,


s: My geese, like Susan's faith, flown far away;


s: My cattle, like their master, lank and poor,


s: My heart with hopeless love to pieces tore,


s: And all these sorrows came syne(8) Snaith Marsh was no more


s: From A Garland of New Songs, published by W. Appleton,


s: By t' side of a brig, that stands over a brook,


s: I went wi' the stream, as I studied my book,


s: I was pretty well lik'd by each village maid,


s: For my father had addled a vast(1) in trade,


s: And seeing that I didn't want for brass,


s: But fashion's so dear, I came back as I went,


s: My kind relations would soon have found out


s: Says I, "My dear cousins, I thank ye for nowt,


s: When I were at home wi' my fayther an' mother,


s: There were threads an' tapes, an' tapes an' silks,


s: When up jumps t' chap i' t' bottommost tub.


s: So I click'd hod(3) o' my gret club stick


s: To-morn's the lang, lang-wish'd-for fair,


s: That's mair 'an(1) beauty, let me tell ye,


s: An' temptin' spice-stalls rang'd i' rows,


s: An' danglin' dolls by t' necks all hangin';


s: An' lasses traul'd(2) alang the streets,


s: When I was a wee laatle totterin' bairn,


s: An' had nobbud just gitten short frocks,


s: When to gang I at first was beginnin' to lairn,


s: For sae waik, an' sae silly an' helpless was I


s: When I grew bigger, an' got to be strang,


s: By misen, whor I liked, then I always mud gang


s: When, however, I com to be sixteen year awd,


s: My mother would call o' me in an' would scaud,


s: I've a sweetheart cooms noo upo' Setterday nights,


s: My mam grows sae stingy, she scauds an' she flytes,(3)


s: Bud she may leuk sour, an' consait hersen wise,


s: Sen I's grown a woman her clack(5) I'll despise,


s: Impius haec tam culta novalia miles habebit?--Virgil.


s: A wanton wether had disdain'd the bounds


s: That kept him close confin'd to Willy's grounds;


s: Broke through the hedge, he wander'd far astray,


s: As Willy strives, with all attentive care,


s: The fence to strengthen and the gap repair,


s: His neighbour, Roger, from the fair return'd,


s: Appears in sight in riding-graith adorn'd;


s: Whom, soon as Willy, fast approaching, spies,


s: Thus to his friend, behind the hedge, he cries.


s: How dea ye, Roger? Hae ye been at t' fair?


s: How gangs things? Made ye onny bargains there?


s: I knaw not, Willy, things deant look ower weel,


s: Coorn sattles fast, thof beas'(1) 'll fetch a deal.


s: To sell t' awd intak(2) barley I desaagn'd,


s: Bud couldn't git a price to suit my maand.


s: What wi' rack-rents an' sike a want a' trade,


s: I knawn't how yan's to git yan's landloords paid.


s: Mair-ower(3) all that, they say, i' spring o' t' year


s: Franch is intarmin'd on 't to 'tack us here.


s: Yea, mon! what are they coomin' hither for?


s: Depend upon 't, they'd better niver stor.(4)


s: True, Willy, nobbud Englishmen 'll stand


s: They'll niver suffer--I's be bun' to say


s: Fightin' for heame, upo' their awn fair field,


s: All power i' France could niver mak 'em yield.


s: Whaw! seer(5) you cannot think, when put to t' pinch,


s: If Franch dea coom here, Roger, I'll be hang'd


s: An' they deant git theirsens reet soondly bang'd.


s: I can't bud think--thof I may be mistean


s: I think nut, Willy, bud some fowk 'll say,


s: Oor English fleet let t' Franch ships git away,


s: When they were laid, thou knaws, i' Bantry Bay;


s: At(6) they could niver all have gien 'em t' slip,


s: Bud t' English wanted nut to tak a ship.


s: How do we knaw when fleets do reet or wrang?


s: I whope it's all on't fause, bud sea talks gang.


s: Howsiver this I knaw, at when they please,


s: Oor sailors always beat 'em upo' t' seas.


s: T'hey needn't let a single ship coom oat.


s: At least they'll drub 'em weel, I dinnot fear,


s: An' keep 'em fairly off frae landin' here.


s: I whope sea, Roger, bud, an' if they dea


s: Coom owerr, I then shall sharpen my awd lea.(7)


s: What thof(8) I can bud of a laatle boast,


s: You knaw van wadn't hae that laatle lost.


s: I's send our Mally an' all t' bairns away,


s: An' I misen 'll by the yamstead(9) stay.


s: I'll fight, if need; an' if I fall, why, then


s: Was I bud seer my wife an' bairns were seafe,


s: Reet, Willy, mon, what an' they put us tea 't


s: I will misen put forrad my best feat.(10)


s: What thof I's awd, I's nut sae easily scar'd;


s: On his awn midden an awd cock fights hard.


s: They say a Franchman's torn'd a different man,


s: Bud let the Franch be torn'd to what they will,


s: They'll finnd at Englishmen are English still.


s: O' their awn grund they'll nowther flinch nor flee,


s: They'll owther conquer, or they'll bravely dee.


s: When flooers of monny soorts were growin',


s: Which fast befoor my scythe fell bowin',


s: Thoo lowpt(1) the fields like onny fawn,


s: Frae dikes where winter watters steead(2)


s: I's wanderin' through the world for prog,


s: Time whets his scythe and shakes his glass,


s: Coom all you cutlin' heroes, where'ersome'er you be,


s: All you what works at flat-backs,(1) coom listen unto me;


s: Or swap 'em for red herrin's, aar bellies to be fillin',


s: Or swap 'em for red herrin's, aar bellies to be fillin'.


s: A baskitful o' flat-backs, I'm sure we'll mak, or more,


s: To ger(2) reight into t' gallery, wheer we can rant an' roar,


s: If they don't play "Nancy's fancy," or onny tune we fix,


s: We'll do the best at e'er we can to break some o' their necks.


s: Hey! Jont, lad, where art ta waddlin' to?


s: Does ta work at flat-backs yit, as tha's been used to do?


s: It's one at I've just forged upon Geoffry's bran-new stiddy.(3)


s: Look at it well, it does excel all t' flat-backs i' aar smithy.


s: Let's send for a pitcher o' ale, lad, for I'm gerrin' varry droy,


s: They're i' sich a moighty hurry to get to t' penny hop,


s: They're i' sich a moighty hurry to get to t' penny hop.


s: Here's Steem at lives at Heeley, he'll soon be here, I knaw,


s: He's larnt a new maccaroni step, the best you iver saw;


s: An' ommost breaks all t' pavors(6) wi' swattin'(7) daan his feet.


s: We'll raise a tail by Sunda, Steem; I knaw who's one to sell,


s: We'll tee a hammer heead at t' end to mak it balance well.


s: Aar Anak browt it wi' him, that neet he coom by t' mail.


s: We'll drink success unto it--hey! Tout, lad, teem(10) aat t' ale.


s: Ill-lookin' wean,(1) thoo must be wrang,


s: Thoo's tripp'd my heels an' meade me stop,


s: 'T wad bring all things completely roond,


s: I'll tell ye aboot the Collingham ghost,


s: He freeten'd the parson as weel as the clerk,


s: An' they wad eyther kill him or catch him,


s: A lot o' great men an' a lot o' rough dogs,


s: They waited lang, the ghost didn't come,


s: When close to their heads wi' a terrible clatter


s: An' owerr the woods he laughed an' shouted,


s: They gaped an' grean'd(4) an' roll'd aboot,


s: T'hey couldn't tell what the ghost was like,


s: They stay'd nea langer i' t' wood that neet,


s: They ran awa hame as fast as they could,


s: At last by t' side o' t' bank they stopp'd,


s: An' lost his buke, an' rave(6) his sark,(7)


s: Bain(1) to Clapham town-end lived an owd Yorkshire tike,


s: Who i' dealing i' horseflesh had ne'er met his like;


s: 'T were his pride that i' all the hard bargains he'd hit,


s: He'd bit a girt monny, but niver bin bit.


s: This owd Tommy Towers (by that name he were known)


s: Had an owd carrion tit(2) that were sheer skin an' bone;


s: To have killed him for t' curs wad have bin quite as well,


s: But 't were Tommy's opinion he'd dee on himsel!


s: Well! yan Abey Muggins, a neighborin cheat,


s: Thowt to diddle owd Tommy wad be a girt treat;


s: He'd a horse, too, 't were war(3) than owd Tommy's, ye see,


s: For t' neet afore that he'd thowt proper to dee !


s: Thinks Abey, t' owd codger 'll niver smoke t' trick,


s: An' if Tommy I nobbut can happen to trap,


s: 'T will be a fine feather i' Abraham cap!


s: So to Tommy he goes, an' the question he pops:


s: What wilt gie me to boot? for mine's t' better horse still?"


s: Abey preached a lang time about summat to boot,


s: Insistin' that his were the liveliest brute;


s: But Tommy stuck fast where he first had begun,


s: Till Abey shook hands, an' said, Well, Tommy I done!


s: "O! Tommy," said Abey, "I's sorry for thee,


s: I thowt thou'd hae hadden mair white i' thy ee;


s: Good luck's wi' thy bargain, for my horse is deead."


s: "Hey!" says Tommy, "my lad, so is mine, an' it's fleead(5)!"


s: So Tommy got t' better o' t' bargain a vast,


s: An' cam' off wi' a Yorkshireman's triumph at last;


s: For thof 'twixt deead horses there's not mich to choose,


s: Yet Tommy were richer by t' hide an' fower shooes.


s: Whoor t' snaw sea furiously did stoor.(1)


s: An' hail-steans doon t' chimley clatter'd.


s: Their cheeks wiv health an' beauty glowing.


s: Their travels telling, whoor they'd been,


s: An' what they had beath heeard an' seen.


s: For three neets runnin' 't were the seame,


s: Did say, "Good friend, what seek you here,


s: "Dreams," says the man, " are empty things,


s: Mere thoughts that flit on silver'd wings;


s: There's such a place as Lealholm Hall(5);


s: Folks wonder'd sair, an' ,weel they might,


s: Meet me at the fowd at the milkin'-time,


s: Whan the dusky sky is gowd at the milkin'-time;


s: The wick-sets(4) an' the branches of the owmerin'(5) yew.


s: Weel ye knaw the hour of the milkin'-time,


s: The girt bell sounds frev t' tower at the milkin'-time;


s: Dunnot linger by the way at the milkin'-time.


s: Ye'll find a lass at's true at the milkin'-time,


s: Shoo thinks of nane bud you at the milkin'-time;


s: Whan I's ower lang at the fowd at the milkin'-time.


s: Happen ye're afeard at the milkin'-time;


s: Mebbe loike ye've heerd at the milkin'-time


s: An' it chances so to-neet, at the milkin'-time.


s: There's yan, an' he knaws weel whan it's milkin'-time;


s: He'd feace the varra de'il at the milkin'-time.


s: If the word I'd nobbud say 't at the milkin'-time.


s: When I've varry gooid wark an' full time,


s: An' misfortunes may come as they pleease,


s: Bud that Chartist wor nowt bud a slope(2)--


s: I were fooild by his speeches an' rhymes,


s: An' were geen up by t' doctors for deead,


s: They'll be sweetened, poor lass, wi' the thowt


s: Come to thy gronny, doy, come to thy gronny,


s: Bless thee, to me tha'rt as pratty as onny;


s: Little tha knaws, doy, the tears at I've shed;


s: Trials I've knawn both for t' heart an' for t' heead,


s: Shortness o' wark, ay, an' shortness o' breead.


s: These I could bide, bud tho' tha'rt noan to blame,


s: Bless thee, tha browt me both sorra an' shame;


s: Gronny, poor sowl, for a two month or more


s: Hardly could feshion to lewk aat. o' t' door;


s: T' neighbours called aat to me, "Dunnot stand that,


s: Aat wi' that hussy an' aat wi' her brat."


s: T' furst thing of all, I thowt, let me go pray;


s: T' next time I slept I'd a dream, do ye see,


s: Ay, an' I knew at that dream were for me.


s: Tears of Christ Jesus, I saw 'em that neet,


s: Fall drop by drop on to one at His feet.


s: After that, saw Him wi' barns raand His knee,


s: Some on 'em, happen, poor crayturs like thee;


s: Says I at last, though I sorely were tried,


s: Neighbours may think or may say what they will,


s: T' muther an' t' dowter sal stop wi' me still.


s: Come on 't what will, i' my cot they sal caar,(2)


s: Woe be to them at maks bad into waar(3);


s: Some fowk may call thee a name at I hate,


s: Wishin' fra t' heart tha were weel aat o' t' gate;


s: Oft this hard world into t' gutter 'll shove thee,


s: Poor little lamb, wi' no daddy to love thee.


s: Dunnot thee freeat, doy, whol granny hods up,


s: What if I work these owd fingers to t' boan,


s: Happen tha'll love me long after I'm goan;


s: T' last bite i' t' cupboard wi' thee I could share't,


s: Hay! bud tha's stown(4) a rare slice o' my heart.


s: Spite of all t' sorra, all t' shame at I've seen,


s: Sunshine comes back to my heart throo thy een;


s: Rosy an' sweet fra thy braa to thy feet,


s: Kingdoms an' craans wodn't buy thee to-neet.


s: Owd Moxy wrowt hard for his morsil o' breead,


s: Tho' Time wi' his scythe hed mawn t' crop on his heead


s: Reight slavish his labour an' little his wage,


s: Poor livin' an' hardships, a deal more nor age,


s: Hed swealed(1) daan his can'le to t' snuff.


s: One cowd winter morn, as he crept aat o' bed,


s: "Come, frame(2) us some breykfast, Owd Duckfooit, he said,


s: "An' I'll finish yond fence up at t' moor;


s: "I'll tew(3) like a brick wi' my hammer an' mall,(4)


s: An' I'll bring home my honey to t' hive,


s: An' I'll pay t' bit o' rent an' wer(5) shop-score an' all,


s: So Peg made his pobs(6) an' then futtered(7) abaat,


s: Then teed up some bacon an' breead in a claat,


s: Wadin' bravely throo t' snaw-broth i' t' dark;


s: It's a pity when fellas at's wakely an' grey


s: Bud summat that mornin' made Moxy turn back,


s: Tho' he hardly knew what it could meean,


s: So, cudlin' Owd Peggy, he gave her a smack,


s: All t' day a wild hurricane wuther'd(9) throo t' glen,


s: An' then rush'd like a fiend up to t' heeath;


s: An' as Peggy sat knittin' shoo said tuv hersen,


s: "Aw dear! he'll be starruv'd to t' deeath."


s: An' shoo felt all that day as shoo'd ne'er felt afore,


s: An' shoo dreeaded yit hunger'd for neet ;


s: When harknin' an' tremlin' shoo heeard abaat t' door


s: Five minutes at after,(10) Owd Peg, on her knees,


s: An' to t' men at stood by her wi' tears i' their ees,


s: Shoo said, "Go, lads, an' leave me alone."


s: When they straightened his body, all ready for t' kist,(11)


s: For t' shop-score an' t' rent war safe locked in his fist,


s: An' little thowt how things would to'n(2);


s: I'll gan nea mair to t' Pomesun Fair,(4)


s: Fra this taame fo'th I'll spend my neets


s: When odours rise through t' hawthorn bush,


s: When t' nightingale maks t' owd woods ring


s: When fairies dance on t' top o' t' flaars


s: When t' streams are stopp'd by owd Jack Frost


s: Shoo's full o' thrift an' full o' sense,


s: Shoo cam to mak folks' hearts feel glad,


s: On t' crags close at side o' t' becksteead.


s: T' lile daisies their beauties will show;


s: Though time an' tempest, beath combined,


s: What ups an' doons i' t' world we've had,


s: Though friends have proved untrue, awd hat,


s: When t' rain an' t' wind coom peltin' through


s: "Why, t' lads their best shoon had put on,


s: An' t' lasses donn'd all their best cwoats;


s: Sell'd by Ward and Tish Tom for five grwoats.


s: Young Tom Cwoats had a stall tuv hissel,


s: "Thar was scissors an' knives an' read(5) purses,


s: An' plenty of awd cleathes on t' nogs,(6)


s: An' pigs at wad fill all t' deale's hulls(7);


s: Thar was baskets, an skeps, an' tin cans,


s: An' bowls, an' wood thivles for gulls.(8)


s: "Thar was plenty of all maks(9) o' meat,


s: I cowp'd(11) my black hat for a white un,


s: Jem Peacock an' Tom talk'd o' feightin',


s: "Thar was dancin' an' feightin' for ever,


s: Charlie Will look'd as white as a clout,


s: Drinkin' shrub wi' grim Freesteane, fond lad;


s: Whar I war'd(14) twea an' seempence i' gin;


s: I paddl'd through t' muck thick an' thin.


s: An' wrowt at t' Awd Gang(16) tell 't was dark."


s: which a knitter would work the loops off six needles.


s: Or, tearing throug'h the leafless trees,


s: They baked grand tarts an' mixed their breead


s: An' t' neebours round, baith young an' owd,


s: With "How's yoursel?" an' "How d'ye do?"


s: Till t' room sae big, all through an' through,


s: The lads draw up to t' fire their chairs,


s: They side(2) all t' chairs, an' stand i' pairs,


s: He rosins t' stick an' screws up t' pins


s: An' when they've reel'd an' danc'd their fling,


s: They tell droll tales, they laugh, they sing,


s: Wi' cheerful din t' owd farmhouse rings,


s: An' still being forc'd to speck an' clout,(4)


s: T' owd men sit round, wi' pipe an' glass,


s: Now girt lang Jack, that lives on t' moor,


s: Moll taks the hint, nor thinks it wrang,


s: She says to t' rest she thinks she'll gang


s: Runs round t' house-end, jumps ower a wa',


s: Who is it at lives i' that cot on the lea,


s: Who is it goes trippin' ower dew-spangled grass,


s: Singin' so sweetly? Shoo smiles as I pass,


s: Bonniest, rosy-cheek'd, gay-hearted lass!


s: Who is it I see i' my dreams of a neet ?


s: Who lovingly whispers words tender an' sweet,


s: Till I wakken to find shoo's nowheer i' t' seet?


s: Who is it at leads me so lively a donce,


s: Yet to tawk serious ne'er gies me a chonce,


s: An' niver replied when I begged on her once?


s: Who is it at ivery chap's hankerin' to get,


s: Yet tosses her heead an' flies off in a pet,


s: As mich as to say, "You've not getten me yet"?


s: Who is it could mak life a long summer's day,


s: Whose smile would drive sorrow an' trouble away,


s: An' mak t' hardest wark, if for her, seem like play?


s: Who is it I'll have if I've iver a wife,


s: An' love her, her only, to th' end o' my life,


s: An' nurse her i' sickness, an' guard her from strife?


s: Who is it at's promised, to-neet if it's fine,


s: To meet me at t' corner o' t' mistal(1) at nine?


s: Why, it's her at I've langed for so long to mak mine-


s: As I hurried through t' taan to my wark,


s: -I were lat,(1) for all t' buzzers had gooan-


s: At 'ud fotch tears thro' th' heart of a stooan.


s: An' th' flagstones were cover'd wi' muck,


s: An' th' east wind both whistled an' howl'd,


s: When two little lads, donn'd(2) i' rags,


s: Baat(3) stockin's or shoes o' their feet,


s: T' big un samm'd(4) summat off t' graand,


s: An' I look'd just to see what 't could be,


s: 'T were a few wizen'd flaars he'd faand,


s: An' they seem'd to hae fill'd him wi' glee.


s: When we get to some spot wheer it's dry."


s: An' I follow'd, 'cause t' were i' my rooad;


s: An' he cried aat, "Look here, Bill, to-day


s: Arn't we blest wi' a seet o' gooid luck?


s: "Here's a apple, an' t' mooast on it's saand,


s: What's rotten I'll throw into t' street.


s: Wern't it gooid to lig theer to be faand?


s: T' other's face beam'd wi' pleasure all through,


s: An' he said, "Nay, tha hasn't taen mich,


s: Tha's a heart i' thy breast, if tha'rt poor;


s: T' world were richer wi' more sich as thee.


s: He desarves it for what he's been doin'.


s: For thisen." An' they star'd like two geese;


s: Bud he said, whol t' tear stood in his ee,


s: Though clamm'd(6) an' hauf donn'd,(7) my lad, still


s: Tha'rt a deal nearer Heaven nor(8) some."


s: An' he stands six foot in his stockin' feet,


s: But there's one I could name, if I could but for shame,


s: Just read it, lass, reight straight away.


s: Abaat thy awn cousin tha surely can read;


s: His ways varry oft has made bitter my cup,


s: But theer--I forgive him--read on, niver heed


s: That's it--"as it leaves me at present "--


s: What is 't, lass? Go on! a new gaan, I'll be bun',


s: Whativer it is it's t' best thing under t' sun.


s: But theer, Liz, be sharp an' let's have his surprise.


s: I'm capt(2) wheer tha's gotten that stammerin' cough,


s: Tha reads a deal better nor that when tha tries.


s: Good gracious! What's t' matter? Shoo's fainted reight off!


s: Hey! Lizzie, tha flays(3) me; coom here,


s: An' sit wheer tha'll get some fresh air:


s: That's reight, lass, get tul it once more,


s: Just read reight to t' end on 't, an' then


s: We'll just tak a walk for a bit aat o' t' door,


s: Whol tha feels rayther more like thisen.


s: At one time I thowt happen thee he'd admire,


s: An' that's haa we all sud have liked it to be.


s: Bud, sithee! What's that, Liz, at's burnin' on t' fire?


s: It's t' ribbin Jim bowt thee! Ay, ay, lass, I see.


s: A Yorkshire Farmer's Address to a Schoolmaster


s: Bud somehoo it's waintly(3) possess'd me


s: If I sends him to wark, why, he'll chunther(5)


s: Sea I thowt a skealmaisther wad suit him,


s: Just to keep a few bairns oot o' mischief,


s: An' to sharpen 'em up if they're numskulls,


s: He was boamin'(7) asleep upo' d' fauf,(8)


s: He's a stiff an' a runty(1) young fellow,


s: Why, you can't see your hand before you,


s: An' happen 'twixt yan o' t' snaw-blints(3)


s: There's hearts doon here, lives, broken,


s: Shoo caars(4) aat on t' soft meadow grass,


s: When shoo hears t' chap's fooitsteps comin',


s: 'Twere at t' Bull's Head we chonced to meet,


s: Long Joe at comes thro' t' Jumples Clough


s: An' Jack o' t' Slade were theer as weel,


s: Thro' raand an' square they seemed to meet


s: "An' Ben o' t' top o' t' bank, tha knows,


s: "Just hark," says Mally, "theer he goes,


s: Tha'll see to that an' have what's fair,


s: Pray what's your name? Where are ye thro'(3)?


s: At last says he, "There's Leeds Taan Hall,


s: edited by "Nattie Nidds" (Pateley Bridge).


s: An' Hartwith youths, wi' screwed-up mooths,


s: Fra Thruscross Green, an' t' Heets Were seen


s: While Aptrick chaps, i' carts and traps,


s: All Greenho Hill, past Coddstone's kill,(4)


s: Baith short an' tall, past Gowthit Hall,


s: All kinds and sorts o' games an' sports,


s: For Green Crag flew, ower t' hurdles true,


s: But t' donkey reace were star o' t' pleace,


s: Tom Hemp fra t' Stean cried oot, "Weel dean,"


s: An' lang-leg Jane, he browt frae t' Plain,


s: Young pronsy(7) flirts, i' drabbl'd skirts,


s: Fat Sal fra' t' Knott scarce gat to t' spot,


s: Which sad mishap quite spoil'd her shap,


s: All frill'd an' starch'd she proodly march'd


s: Tha're cuffs an' falls, tunics an' shawls,


s: Tha're mushroom fops, fra' fields an' shops,


s: An' lots o' youths, wi' beardless mooths,


s: If you're i' debt, don't growl an' grunt,


s: The File-cutter's Lament to Liberty (1910)


s: Nay, I'm moithered,(1) fairly maddled,(2)


s: An' (naa, listen! this puts t' capper on)


s: But sweet-stuff's walsh,(6) an' wine is cowd,


s: To finnd my lass ower t' hills I'll ride,


s: Then shaat till ye've gor hooast,(3) lads,


s: Wer hooam, wer hearth, wer baans,(4) lads."


s: They're all reight somewheer, an' we 'st be no war!


s: Wer hooam, wer hearth, wer baans, lads."


s: 'Cause he'd made sich a pigsty o' t' place,


s: An' she says, I"t's a daanreyt disgrace!


s: I niver did see sich a haase to come intul


s: I'll sooin put things streyt, niver fear.


s: Shoo's donned a owd appron, an' tucked up her sleaves,


s: Tha can tell, when t' hail pelts tha like mad,


s: Tha knaws t' flegstuns mun ha' been bad,


s: When she teems(1) aat all t' wotter i' t' tub.


s: When shoo gets hod o' t' long brush an' sweeps aat them chamers,


s: Whol shoo's threng(2) tha'll be best aat o' t' gate(3):


s: Shoo'll care nowt for soft tawk an' kisses.


s: Whol shoo's getten things ready for t' missis.


s: Shoo'll doff her owd appron, an' slip aat i' t' garden,


s: An' shoo sits i' her state, grandly dressed;


s: When shoo's donned hersen up i' her best


s: An' stands all i' a glow,- wi' a smile on her lips


s: To t' tips of her fingers shoo's wick.(4)


s: Tha can feel her soft breath comin' quick,


s: Them daffydaandillies shoo's kissed an' then gi'en


s: What comfort there's i' steep(1) for me,


s: They've things they think the wo'ld aboot.


s: An' when their bed-taame's drawin' nigh,


s: An' when on t' lats(3) they've gone aboon,


s: Cawd winds may blaw, an' snaw-flakes flee,


s: Privately printed by Mr. E. A. Lodge in a volume entitled


s: Tha'rt welcome, thrice welcome, Owd England;


s: An' my heart's beeatin' true to thee still.


s: There's a gladness i' t' sky at bends ower thee,


s: There's a sweetness i' t' green o' thy grass,


s: There's a glory i' t' waves at embrace thee,


s: An' thy beauty there's naan can surpass.


s: For tha's mothered a race o' fair women,


s: There's one little spot up i' Yorkshire,


s: An' it holds t' warmest place i' my breast.


s: An' that is, there's no place like hooam.


s: I know there'll be one theer to greet me


s: At's proved faithful through many dark days,


s: An' there's neighbours both hooamly an' kindly,


s: An' a blue sky wheer t' skylark is singin',


s: Wi' a love at each day grows more strong;


s: In my heart tha sinks deeper an' deeper,


s: An' spite o' thy faults an' thy follies,


s: I' storm or i' sunshine, i' weal or i' woe,


s: May thy sons an' thy dowters live happy,


s: May thy friends be for iver increeasin',


s: From Woz'ls Humorous Sketches and Rhymes in the East


s: Whin I gor hoired et Beacon Farm a year last Martinmas,


s: I fund we'd gor a vory bonny soort o' kitchen lass;


s: And so I tell'd her plooin' made me hungry--thot was why


s: I awlus was a laatle sthrong on pudden and on pie.


s: And efther thot I thowt the pie was, mebbe, middlin' large,


s: And so I ate it for her sake--theer wasn't onny charge;


s: Until it seems t' missus asked her rayther sharply why


s: She awlus used t' biggest dish for pudden and for pie.


s: I wasn't mich of use, ye knaw, et this here fancy talkin',


s: She had no chance o' goin' oot for armin' it and walkin'.


s: But thin I knawed I gor her love whin I could see t' pies;


s: I knawed her thowts o' me were big by bigness o' their size.


s: Noo just thoo wait a bit and see; I'm only thod-lad(2) noo,


s: I moight be wagoner or hoind within a year or two;


s: And whin thoo's buyin' coats and beats(3) wi' wages thot ye take,


s: And whin I've gar a missus ther'll be no more askin' why


s: She awlus gers oor biggest dish for pudden and for pie.


s: I's gotten t' bliss o' moonten-tops to-neet,


s: Thof I's i' bondage noo, an' blinnd an' deeaf.


s: Brethren, I's stoun(1)! an' fand it varry sweet,


s: Sea strike my neame off, if't be your belief


s: Last neet, as I were shoggin'(2) on up t' street,


s: Ye think I's hardened. Ay! I see ye lewvk.


s: I stell't,(3) it's true; bud, brethren, I'll repay.


s: I'll pay back ten-foad iverything I tewk,


s: An' folks may say whate'er they like to say.


s: An' t' lass has promised iv oar ingle-newk


s: An' that's t' gospel-truth o' t' matter,


s: "O! What do ye wesh i' the beck, awd wench?


s: It's nobbut a murderer's shrood, young man,


s: "O! what do ye cut i' the slack, awd hag?


s: Is it fencin' ye lack for your beas'(2)?"


s: "O! what do ye greaye(4) at the crossroads, witch?


s: "It's nobbut a murderer's grave, fair sir,


s: "An' whea be-owes(5) coffin an' shrood, foul witch?


s: "This spell I hae woven for thee, dear hairt,


s: If ivver thoo gav owther hosen or shoon,


s: Bud if hosen or shoon thoo nivver gav nean,(4)


s: T' whinnies 'll prick thee sair to t' bean,(5)


s: Frae Whinny-moor when(6) thoo mayst pass,


s: To t' Brig o' Dreead thoo'll coom at last,


s: If ivver thoo gav o' thy siller an' gowd,


s: At t' Brig o' Dreead thoo'll finnd foothod,


s: Bud if siller an' gowd thoo nivver gav nean,


s: Thoo'll doan, doon tum'le towards Hell fleames,


s: Frae t' Brig o' Dreead when thoo mayst pass,


s: To t' fleames o' Hell thoo'll coom at last,


s: Bud if bite or sup thoo nivver gav nean,


s: T' fleames 'll bon(7) thee sair to t' bean,


s: If hosen and shoon thou ne'er gavest nane,


s: The whinnes shall pricke thee to the bare bane,


s: From Brigg o' Dread when thou mayst passe,


s: If meate or drinke thou never gavest nane,


s: The fire will burn thee to the bare bane;


s: When t' streeam runs dry, an' t' deead leaves fall,


s: An' t' blood wi' lithin'(3), seems fair clogg'd,


s: When t' een grows dim, an' folk draw nigh


s: T' priest may coom, an' t' priest may gan,


s: When t' deeath-smear clems a wrinkled broo,


s: When t' dree neet cooms, can patch a sowl,


s: An' t' winner shuts(5) they rattled sair,


s: An' t' Gabriel ratchets(6) yelp'd aboon,


s: To staup(7) abroad wi' whimly(8) treead,


s: Bud laal(9) deeath recks hoo dree t' neet be,


s: When t' sand runs oot, his sickle reaps;


s: Wi' shoonless feet, ower flinty steanes,


s: T' gainest trod(11) to t' Brig o' Deead;


s: Frae t' ullets' tree; doon chimleys three


s: An' roond t' can'le twea taames there cam


s: Bud t' thod(15), it swirl'd reet into t' fleame,


s: to his T' Hunt o' Yatton Brigg, p. 37, second edition.


s: one's want. The reference is to extreme unction.


s: From R. Blakeborough's Wit, Character, Folklore,


s: Bud some bauf(1) swain at's soond o' puff,


s: Whal she, sweet maid, 'll wear his troth,


s: Here's health to t' lass whea donn'd this band


s: Sea sip it, an' tip it, bud tip it doon your wizan.(2)


s: Sea sip it, an' tip it, bud tip it doon your wizan.


s: Sae sip it, an' tip it, bud tip it doon your wizan.


s: Sea sip it, an' tip it, bud tip it do on your wizan.


s: appended to his T' Hunt o' Yatton Brigg, p. 57, 2nd edition..


s: From Mr. R. Blakeborough's "Old Songs of the Dales,"


s: appended to his T' Hunt o' Yatton Brigg, p. 44, 2nd edition.


s: Nance hing'd her heead an' dropp'd her een,


s: Noo hod thy whisht,(5) thoo's tell'd t' same tale


s: Bud Tom just bowdly sleev'd(6) her waist


s: An' nean i' t' village would have knawn,


s: An' nean can say I's scrawmy(13) cauf'd,


s: Ther's a tead(2) i' t' fire, a frog on t' hob,


s: Here's prick'd i' blood a maiden's prayer,


s: also the same author's Yorkshire Wit, Character, Folklore, and


s: He nayther took stick, stain, wire, nor stower,(2)


s: But he up wi' a besom an' knock'd her ower.


s: So all ye good neighbours who live i' this raw,


s: I pray ye tak warnin', for this is our law.


s: from Gordon Home's 'The Evolution of an English Town, p208.


s: (As sung at Richmond, Yorkshire, on the eve of the


s: To-night it is the New-year's night, to-morrow is the day,"


s: And we are come for our right, and for our ray,(2)


s: As we used to do in old King Henry's day.


s: If you go to the bacon-flick, cut me a good bit;


s: Cut, cut and round, beware of your thumb,


s: If you go to the Black-ark, bring me ten mark;


s: Ten mark, ten pound, throw it down upon the ground,


s: Lucky-bird, lucky-bird, chuck, chuck, chuck!


s: Maister an' mistress, it's time to git up.


s: If you don't git up, you'll have nea luck;


s: Lucky- bird, lucky-bird, chuck, chuck, chuck!


s: Ya hauf o' t' winter's to coom an' mair.


s: An' niver flang ower(2) but yance iv a grip.(3)


s: John Metcalfe has gitten all shorn an' mawn,


s: All but a few standards an' a bit o' lowse corn.


s: For we've getten t' mell o' t' farmer's corn.


s: I wish you a merry Kessenmas an' a happy New Year,


s: A pokeful o' money an' a cellar-full o' beer.


s: Good maisther an' misthress, hoo do you do?


s: (English Dialect Society Publications, vol. 39, pp. xvii.-xviii).


s: There craws an' whistles sike(1) a pair;


s: If they send more grist we'll grind more still.


s: Gin Hob mun hae nowt but a hardin' hamp,


s: He'll co om nae mair nowther to berry nor stamp.(1)


s: An' blaw my father heame to my moother.(2)


s: Nowther blue nor green mun match her driss.


s: An' blest is t' deead at t' rain rains on.


s: Tak twea at's red an' yan at's blake,(1)


s: Three fresh-cull'd blooms o' devil's glut,(2)


s: A Tho'sday's bairn wean't baade at heame.


s: Bud a Sunday's bairn thruf leyfe is blist,.


s: An' seer i' t' end wi' t' saints to rist.


s: Thy haase is afire, thy childer all gone;


s: I cross'd pynot,(1) an' t' pynot cross'd me.


s: T' devil tak t' pynot an' God save me. .


s: Your fayther an' muthel'll gie ye some corn.


s: Will buy all England through an' through.


s: When lords an' ladies stinking water soss,(2)


s: In collecting the following poems I have to thank the editors and


s: In an ancient country barrack known to ancient cannoneers,


s: I had borne my bitterest loss--when One who went, came not again;


s: With my faint eyes on the feeble square of wan-lit window frame,


s: A quick conviction sprung within me, grew, and grew yet stronger,


s: On the rugged ridge of Waterstone, the peewits plaining round;


s: Chance had quartered here, I rose up and descended to the yard.


s: Thus I walked with thoughts half-uttered


s: I adventured on the open drouthy downland thinly grassed,


s: As before, in antique silence--immemorial funeral piles -


s: Though since that day uncounted frail forgotten generations


s: In a past that lived no more, my eyes discerned there, suddenly,


s: In the vale, had been her home; the nook might hold her even yet,


s: She withdrew some steps; then letting intuition smother fear


s: Any heartstring bore a signal-thrill between us twain or no? -


s: And a mutual forgiveness won, we sank to silent thought,


s: A large content in us that seemed our rended lives reclasping,


s: From the lateness, and a wayfaring so full of strain and stress


s: For one no longer buoyant, to a peak so steep and eery,


s: All the spacious landscape lighting, and around about my feet


s: Dozing likewise; and I turned to her, to take her hanging hand;


s: (I surmise) my sigh and shock, my quite involuntary dismay,


s: Of the worth of man's devotion!--Yes, Sir, I am OLD," said she,


s: With the too proud temper ruling that had parted us before,


s: - But it MAY be (though I know not) that this trick on us of Time


s: Well I know it still.  I cherished her reproach like physic-wine,


s: Did we meet again?--mend all?--Alas, what greyhead perseveres! -


s: By fosseway, fields, and turnpike tracks


s: Through the Great Forest, Blackmoor wide,


s: "King's Stag," "Windwhistle" high and dry,


s: Whose is the child you are like to bear? -


s: As the wind stirred to call up day . . .


s: And I walked the Town alone, unminding whither bound and why,


s: Leered as if with discontent at city movement, murk, and grime,


s: And as waiting some procession of great ghosts from bygone ages


s: By a thoroughfare where stern utilitarian traffic dinned,


s: On a red and white emblazonment of players and parts, I sighted


s: Still remaining from my ardours of some forty years before,


s: When the selfsame portal on an eve it thrilled me to remember


s: And had first beheld in human mould a Rosalind woo and plead,


s: On whose transcendent figuring my speedy soul had centred


s: I resolved on entrance, bent on seeing what I once had seen,


s: And approached the gangway of my earlier knowledge, disregarding


s: Was THIS Rosalind!--a mammet quite to me, in memories nurst,


s: In my then triumphant days when I had charm and maidenhood,


s: Now some forty years ago.--I used to say, COME WOO ME, WOO ME!"


s: "I've packed my traps to sail the main" -


s: "Is there an herb . . . ?" I asked.  "Or none?"


s: "--There is," he said; "a certain one . . . "


s: (Ill-motherings!  Why should they be?) -


s: "If not, would God have sent such things?"


s: I'll give all whispering tongues the lie;" -


s: - Next Sunday came, with sweet church chimes


s: Showed their new raiment--smiled and talked,


s: My mouth dried, as 'twere scorched within,


s: "Ha-ha!  Such well-kept news!" laughed they,


s: "Whose banns were called in church to-day?" -


s: Christ, how I wished my soul could flee!


s: (They spoke quite lightly in their glee)


s: To me he whispered:  "Since your call--"


s: "She's faint to-day--tired--nothing more--"


s: O women! scourged the worst are we . . .


s: There she lay--silent, breathless, dead,


s: Stone dead she lay--wronged, sinless she! -


s: While the clock in the stairway is warning


s: I shall sit by the fire and wait dreaming


s: Where a light has risen that cannot wane,


s: They see as a palace their cottage-place,


s: They rate the world as a gruesome place,


s: Where fair looks fade to a skull's grimace, -


s: As a pilgrimage they would fain get done -


s: Do John and Jane with their worthless son.


s: I thought they'd be strangers aroun' me,


s: Let me jump out o' waggon and go back and drown me


s: I thought:  "Well, I've come to the Union -


s: After honest hard work all the week, and Communion


s: "'Tis hard; but," I thought, "never mind it:


s: And when I get used to the place I shall find it


s: "Life there will be better than t'other.


s: To the side o' the waggon wherein we were driving


s: "Old folks, that harsh order is altered,


s: The Guardians they poohed and they pished and they paltered


s: "'It is wrong,' I maintained, 'to divide them,


s: 'Very well, sir.  We promise, then, they shall abide them


s: Then I sank--knew 'twas quite a foredone thing


s: To the end! . . . To get freed of her there was the one thing


s: "But anyhow," thought I, "thereby I shall gladly


s: Spent flames limning ghosts on the wainscot


s: Each scene, sigh, and circumstance passing


s: - Wealth was mine beyond wish when I met her -


s: But it pleased her to play on my passion,


s: Could his price but be paid for so purging


s: As we lay, she and I, in the night-time,


s: She gasped:  yea, she heard; understood it.


s: Thenceforward she shunned me, and languished;


s: Embraced her fair form, and extinguished


s: - So; ask not what blast may account for


s: These bones that just prison within them


s: And the throng in the street will thrill


s: With that wave of her white-gloved hand,


s: Of the powdered Dears from Georgian years,


s: Whose dust lay in sightless sealed-up biers,


s: And the gas-jets winked, and the lustres clinked,


s: And the platform throbbed as with arms enlinked


s: Do their spectres spin like sparks within


s: New minds, new modes, new fools, new wise;


s: I lingered through the night to break of day,


s: Full-featured terms--all fitless--hastened by,


s: And this sole speech remained:  "That maiden mine!" -


s: Debarred from due description then did I


s: Perceive the indefinite phrase could yet define.


s: As common chests encasing wares of price


s: Are borne with tenderness through halls of state,


s: We kissed at the barrier; and passing through


s: Through hustling crowds of gentle and rough


s: That flexible form, that nebulous white;


s: We have penned new plans since that fair fond day,


s: - "And why, young man, must eternally fly


s: A joy you'll repeat, if you love her well?"


s: --O friend, nought happens twice thus; why,


s: Have helped to bruit your beauty's fame.


s: Nor have your faultless feet once thrown


s: - Since nought bespeaks you here, or bears,


s: But what when their fresh splendours close?


s: Pressed heart to heart and hand to hand;


s: "I have married him--yes; feel that ring;


s: He's a confident man.  'The husband scores,'


s: He says, 'in the long run' . . . Now, Dear, go!"


s: And she whom I held is as though she were not,


s: For they have resumed their honeymoon tour.


s: In the vaulted way, where the passage turned


s: To the shadowy corner that none could see,


s: You paused for our parting,--plaintively;


s: Though overnight had come words that burned


s: And then I kissed you,--despite my thought


s: That our spell must end when reflection came


s: On what you had deemed me, whose one long aim


s: Had been to serve you; that what I sought


s: Lay not in a heart that could breathe such blame.


s: As of old kissed me.  Why, why was it so?


s: Do you cleave to me after that light-tongued blow?


s: If you scorned me at eventide, how love then?


s: The thing is dark, Dear.  I do not know.


s: Might strain our love, Time's mere assault


s: I faltered:  "Well . . . I did not think


s: That my staunch pledge could scarce beguile


s: Her doubts then wrought their shape in me,


s: Here is your parents' dwelling with its curtained windows telling


s: Their slumbers have been normal after one day more of formal


s: Matrimonial commonplace and household life's mechanic gear.


s: I would be candid willingly, but dawn draws on so chillingly


s: As to render further cheerlessness intolerable now,


s: So I will not stand endeavouring to declare a day for severing,


s: But will clasp you just as always--just the olden love avow.


s: Of a cord we have spun to breaking--too intemperately, too well.


s: The cold moon hangs to the sky by its horn,


s: Their westering as for a while forborne,


s: That all is prepared; that the hour is near


s: That spigots are pulled and viols strung;


s: That She will return in Love's low tongue


s: For naught!  Those moils you fear for me


s: I thought and thought of thy crass clanging town


s: To folly, till convinced such dreams were ill,


s: I held my heart in bond, and tethered down


s: I said:  How beautiful are these flowers, this wood,


s: Than all man's urban shows; and then I stood


s: Urging new zest for bird, and bush, and tree;


s: And strove to feel my nature brought it forth


s: But it was vain; for I could not see worth


s: Longing to madness I might move therein!


s: As some bland soul, to whom a debtor says


s: "I'll now repay the amount I owe to you,"


s: (His long thought notwithstanding), so did I


s: At our last meeting waive your proffered kiss


s: With quick divergent talk of scenery nigh,


s: When, gathering that the debt is lightly deemed,


s: So faltered I, when your intention seemed


s: Till now conceived creator of her grace -


s: With telescopic sight high natures know,


s: Discern remote in Time's untravelled space


s: Your soft sweet mien, your gestures, as do we,


s: And with a copyist's hand but set them down,


s: And by thy tender tones, what wight can fly


s: That he at length beholds woo, parley, plead,


s: I read your name when you were strange to me,


s: Where it stood blazoned bold with many more;


s: Why did I not possess me with its sound,


s: And in its cadence catch and catch again


s: Your nature's essence floating therearound?


s: Could THAT man be this I, unknowing you,


s: And purpose no more what it used to be -


s: To springs that then were sealed up utterly?


s: The grey gaunt days dividing us in twain


s: Seemed hopeless hills my strength must faint to climb,


s: But they are gone; and now I would detain


s: The few clock-beats that part us; rein back Time,


s: And live in close expectance never closed


s: In change for far expectance closed at last,


s: On my long need while these slow blank months passed.


s: And knowing that what is now about to be


s: Will all HAVE BEEN in O, so short a space!


s: When more dividing months shall take its place,


s: Sing, Ballad-singer, raise a hearty tune;


s: Make me forget that there was ever a one


s: I walked with in the meek light of the moon


s: Rhyme, Ballad-rhymer, start a country song;


s: Make me forget that she whom I loved well


s: Swore she would love me dearly, love me long,


s: Sing, Ballad-singer, from your little book;


s: Make me forget those heart-breaks, achings, fears;


s: Make me forget her name, her sweet sweet look -


s: These market-dames, mid-aged, with lips thin-drawn,


s: Are they the ones we loved in years agone,


s: Are these the muslined pink young things to whom


s: In nooks on summer Sundays by the Froom,


s: Do they remember those gay tunes we trod


s: Aye; trod till moonlight set on the beaten sod


s: They must forget, forget!  They cannot know


s: Or memory would transfigure them, and show


s: Nobody took any notice of her as she stood on the causey kerb,


s: A thatch-roofed house where sengreens grow?


s: And does John Waywood live there still -


s: Will's at the dance in the Club-room below,


s: Will and his partner are treading a tune,


s: Said he would let his old pleasures all go


s: The singers are gone from the Cornmarket-place


s: The street rings no longer in treble and bass


s: And the Cross, lately thronged, is a dim naked space


s: From Clock-corner steps, as each quarter ding-dongs,


s: By the "Hart" and Grey's Bridge into byways and "drongs,"


s: The younger ones shrilling the lately heard songs,


s: The shy-seeming maiden so mute in the fair


s: And that one who looked the most swaggering there


s: And she who seemed eaten by cankering care


s: And midnight clears High Street of all but the ghosts


s: From the latest far back to those old Roman hosts


s: I pitched my day's leazings in Crimmercrock Lane,


s: When a dear dark-eyed gentleman passed there and said,


s: In a way that made all o' me colour rose-red,


s: And he came and he tied up my garter for me.


s: 'Twixt sunset and moonrise it was, I can mind:


s: Ah, 'tis easy to lose what we nevermore find! -


s: Of the dear stranger's home, of his name, I knew nought,


s: But I soon knew his nature and all that it brought.


s: Should ever have tied up my garter for me!


s: Yet now I've beside me a fine lissom lad,


s: And my slip's nigh forgot, and my days are not sad;


s: My own dearest joy is he, comrade, and friend,


s: He it is who safe-guards me, on him I depend;


s: That his daddy once tied up my garter for me!


s: NOTE.--"Leazings" (line 1).--Bundle of gleaned corn.


s: - You'll turn your back as now, you mean?


s: I wanted to marry, but father said, "No -


s: 'Tis weakness in women to give themselves so;


s: If you care for your freedom you'll listen to me,


s: Make a spouse in your pocket, and let the men be."


s: I spake on't again and again:  father cried,


s: "Why--if you go husbanding, where shall I bide?


s: For never a home's for me elsewhere than here!"


s: And I yielded; for father had ever been dear.


s: But now father's gone, and I feel growing old,


s: And I'm lonely and poor in this house on the wold,


s: And my sweetheart that was found a partner elsewhere,


s: And nobody flings me a thought or a care.


s: Well:  I'll say what the listening birds


s: When we rode in the waggon from harvesting


s: She would hold out her coats, give a slanting glance,


s: As if none such a place for a lover to quaff


s: You knew her in maidhood likewise?--Yes,


s: But how can it matter, so soon to be dead,


s: "Dears, how can you keep from your lovers, adorning


s: "Coats" (line 7).--Old name for petticoats.


s: And the cider made to-year will be as wine.


s: Like a ball or leaf or lamb along the ground.


s: Since the first two sighing half-hearts made a whole.


s: Ere I thought she might not see him as I see!


s: Mine from thy heart, make thy nearness seem afar?


s: He sees them pay high for their prancing


s: He twangs:  "Music hails from the devil,


s: And then! . . . But something stirred? -


s: Why didn't you say you was promised, Rose-Ann?


s: Ere ever you tempted me hither, Rose-Ann,


s: O why did you let me be near 'ee, Rose-Ann,


s: And never by nod or by whisper, Rose-Ann,


s: Down home I was raising a flock of stock ewes,


s: Cocks and hens, and wee chickens by scores,


s: Mother said:  "She's a sport-making maiden, my son";


s: O why do you prove by this wrong you have done


s: Never once did you say you was promised, Rose-Ann,


s: And it cuts to the heart to be treated, Rose-Ann,


s: Gruffly growled the wind on Toller downland broad and bare,


s: And lonesome was the house, and dark; and few came there.


s: "Now don't ye rub your eyes so red; we're home and have no cares;


s: The wind of winter mooed and mouthed their chimney like a horn,


s: And round the house and past the house 'twas leafless and lorn.


s: "But my dear and tender poppet, then, how came ye to agree


s: In Ivel church this morning?  Sure, there-right you married me!"


s: And lonesome was the house and dark; and few came there.


s: "I didn't think such furniture as this was all you'd own,


s: And great black beams for ceiling, and a floor o' wretched stone,


s: And a monstrous crock in chimney.  'Twas to me quite unbeknown!"


s: Rattle rattle went the door; down flapped a cloud of smoke,


s: As shifting north the wicked wind assayed a smarter stroke.


s: "Now sit ye by the fire, poppet; put yourself at ease:


s: And keep your little thumb out of your mouth, dear, please!


s: And I'll sing to 'ee a pretty song of lovely flowers and bees,


s: And happy lovers taking walks within a grove o' trees."


s: Gruffly growled the wind on Toller Down, so bleak and bare,


s: And lonesome was the house, and dark; and few came there.


s: But you'll be getting older, like us all, ere very long,


s: And you'll see me as I am--a man who never did 'ee wrong."


s: Straight from Whit'sheet Hill to Benvill Lane the blusters pass,


s: Hitting hedges, milestones, handposts, trees, and tufts of grass.


s: "Well, had I only known, my dear, that this was how you'd be,


s: I'd have married her of riper years that was so fond of me.


s: But since I can't, I've half a mind to run away to sea,


s: And leave 'ee to go barefoot to your d-d daddee!"


s: Up one wall and down the other--past each window-pane -


s: Prance the gusts, and then away down Crimmercrock's long lane.


s: Aye--as you are ki-ki-kind, I'll try to live along with 'ee,


s: Although I'd fain have stayed at home with dear daddee!"


s: And lonesome was the house and dark; and few came there.


s: So don't ye tap your shoe so pettish-like; but smile at me,


s: And ye'll soon forget to sock and sigh for dear daddee!"


s: She turned in the high pew, until her sight


s: Swept the west gallery, and caught its row


s: Against the sinking sad tower-window light.


s: She turned again; and in her pride's despite


s: One strenuous viol's inspirer seemed to throw


s: Which said:  "I claim thee as my own forthright!"


s: Thus their hearts' bond began, in due time signed.


s: And long years thence, when Age had scared Romance,


s: That gallery-scene would break upon her mind,


s: With him as minstrel, ardent, young, and trim,


s: A carol in a minor key, a carol in the major D,


s: Then at each house:  "Good wishes:  many Christmas joys to you!"


s: Next, to the widow's John and I and all the rest drew on.  And I


s: Discerned that John could hardly hold the tongue of him for joy.


s: The widow was a sweet young thing whom John was bent on marrying,


s: When lo, behind her back there, in the room, a man appeared.


s: - "She married yester-morning--only mother yet has known


s: A heavy fall aroused us:  John had gone down like a stone.


s: When, hearing something wrong had happened, oped the window she:


s: By forming this new tie, young dame, and jilting John so true,


s: "I've--searched round by the--WELL, and find the cover open wide!


s: We did so, and we went and stood the deep dark hole beside.


s: And we the quire formed round the grave, as was the custom then.


s: Where Church-way mounts to Moaning Hill,


s: "'Twas the Birth-tide Eve, and the hamleteers


s: "For two-score years, ere Christ-day light,


s: Mellstock had throbbed to strains from these;


s: "Loud, lively, reckless, some had grown,


s: "The clock belled midnight; and ere long


s: Seemed singing words of prayer and praise


s: "'While shepherds watch'd their flocks by night,' -


s: "With brows abashed, and reverent tread,


s: "By Bank-walk wicket, brightly bleached,


s: "Each headstone of the quire, each mound,


s: There Reuben and Michael, a pace behind,


s: - The sad man ceased; and ceased to heed


s: "It shall be dark unto you, that ye shall not divine."


s: Mouth as you list:  sneer, rail, blaspheme,


s: Not far from Mellstock--so tradition saith -


s: Where barrows, bulging as they bosoms were


s: Of Multimammia stretched supinely there,


s: Catch night and noon the tempest's wanton breath,


s: A battle, desperate doubtless unto death,


s: Was one time fought.  The outlook, lone and bare,


s: The towering hawk and passing raven share,


s: And all the upland round is called "The He'th."


s: Fought singlehandedly to shield a child -


s: One not her own--from a man's senseless rage.


s: And to my mind no patriots' bones there piled


s: That one from him that day had reached her too.


s: Would lodge with her ere he came home to me.


s: That, in her stead, _I_ might before him stand.


s: Should bear what she bore when I entered in!


s: While I peered at the chamber hired as theirs.


s: He came--my husband--as she knew he would.


s: What love was theirs, to move them with such might!


s: To tell you--that he won me ere he went."


s: I saw myself the snarer--them the trapped.


s: And cherish, and take interest in the child."


s: And closed it on them, and downstairward bore.


s: All had come right, and we had arranged it so . . .


s: I held I had not stirred God wrothfully.


s: When Michaelmas browned the nether Coomb,


s: He groaned:  "You give me, Love, no rest,


s: He smiled, and said 'twixt word and sign,


s: The whirr that shakes the nighthawk's throat


s: Some say each songster, tree, and mead -


s: Are those far back ones missed when near,


s: When the wasting embers redden the chimney-breast,


s: And Life's bare pathway looms like a desert track to me,


s: And from hall and parlour the living have gone to their rest,


s: My perished people who housed them here come back to me.


s: They come and seat them around in their mouldy places,


s: Now and then bending towards me a glance of wistfulness,


s: A strange upbraiding smile upon all their faces,


s: And in the bearing of each a passive tristfulness.


s: "Do you uphold me, lingering and languishing here,


s: A pale late plant of your once strong stock?" I say to them;


s: "A thinker of crooked thoughts upon Life in the sere,


s: "--O let be the Wherefore!  We fevered our years not thus:


s: And, satisfied, placid, unfretting, watch Time away beamingly!"


s: There's no more to be done, or feared, or hoped;


s: None now need watch, speak low, and list, and tire;


s: No irksome crease outsmoothed, no pillow sloped


s: Blankly we gaze.  We are free to go or stay;


s: Our morrow's anxious plans have missed their aim;


s: Whether we leave to-night or wait till day


s: Seem asking wherefore we have set them here;


s: And yet we feel that something savours well;


s: Our well-beloved is prisoner in the cell


s: We see by littles now the deft achievement


s: Whereby she has escaped the Wrongers all,


s: In view of which our momentary bereavement


s: As 'twere untimely news she broke to me.


s: To own the weetless child you mother there;


s: 'Men may search the wide world through,'


s: You think, 'nor find so fair another there!'


s: When Life stretched forth its morning ray to me;


s: Such strange things did mother say to me.