Poems of Rural Life in the Dorset Dialect/The Lark
THE LARK.
As I, below the mornèn sky,
Wer out a workèn in the lew
O’ black-stemm’d thorns, a-springèn high,
Avore the worold-boundèn blue,
A-reäkèn, under woak tree boughs,
The orts a-left behin’ by cows.
Above the grey-grow’d thistle rings,
An’ deäisy-buds, the lark, in flight,
Did zing a-loft, wi’ flappèn wings,
Tho’ mwore in heärèn than in zight;
The while my bwoys, in plaÿvul me’th.
Did run till they wer out o’ breath.
Then woone, wi’ han’-besheäded eyes,
A-stoppèn still, as he did run,
Look’d up to zee the lark arise
A-zingèn to the high-gone zun;
The while his brother look’d below
Vor what the groun’ mid have to show.
Zoo woone did watch above his head
The bird his hands could never teäke;
An’ woone, below, where he did tread,
Vound out the nest within the breäke;
But, aggs be only woonce a-vound,
An’ uncaught larks ageän mid sound.