Classic Poem

THOMAS .

How b'ye, then, John, to-night; an' how
Be times a-waggen on w' ye now?
I can't help slackenen my peäce
When I do come along your pleäce,
To zee what crops your bit o' groun'
Do bear ye all the zummer roun'.
'Tis true you don't get fruit nor blooth,
'Ithin the glassen houses' lewth;
But if a man can rear a crop
Where win' do blow an' rain can drop,
Do seem to come, below your hand,
As fine as any in the land.

JOHN .

Well, there, the geärden stuff an' flow'rs
Don't leäve me many idle hours;
But still, though I mid plant or zow,
'Tis Woone above do meäke it grow.

THOMAS .

Aye, aye, that's true, but still your strip
O' groun' do show good workmanship:
You've onions there nine inches round,
An' turmits that would waigh a pound;
An' cabbage wi' its hard white head,
An' teäties in their dousty bed,
An' carrots big an' straight enough
Vor any show o' geärden stuff;
An' trees ov apples, red-skinn'd balls,
An' purple plums upon the walls,
An' peas an' beäns; bezides a store
O' heärbs vor ev'ry pain an' zore.

JOHN .

An' over hedge the win's a-heärd,
A-ruslen drough my barley's beard;
An' swaÿèen wheat do overspread
Zix ridges in a sheet o' red;
An' then there's woone thing I do call
The girtest handiness ov all:
My ground is here at hand, avore
My eyes, as I do stand at door;
An' zoo I've never any need
To goo a mile to pull a weed.

THOMAS .

No, sure, a miil shoulden stratch
Between woone's geärden an' woone's hatch.
A man would like his house to stand
Bezide his little bit o' land.

JOHN .

Ees. When woone's groun' vor geärden stuff
Is roun' below the house's ruf,
Then woone can spend upon woone's land
Odd minutes that mid lie on hand,
The while, wi' night a-comen on,
The red west sky's a-wearen wan;
Or while woone's wife, wi' busy hands,
Avore her vier o' burnen brands,
Do put, as best she can avword,
Her bit o' dinner on the bwoard.
An' here, when I do teäke my road,
At breakfast-time, agwain abrode,
Why, I can zee if any plot
O' groun' do want a hand or not;
An' bid my childern, when there's need,
To draw a reäke or pull a weed,
Or heal young beäns or peas in line,
Or tie em up wi' rods an' twine,
Or peel a kindly withy white
To hold a droopen flow'r upright.

THOMAS .

No. Bits o' time can zeldom come
To much on groun' a mile vrom hwome
A man at hwome should have in view
The jobs his childern's hands can do;
An' groun' abrode mid teäke em all
Beyond their mother's zight an' call,
To get a zoaken in a storm,
Or vall, i' may be, into harm.

JOHN .

Ees. Geärden groun', as I've a-zed,
Is better near woone's bwoard an' bed.