Easter Zunday
Last
Easter
Jim
put
on
his
blue
Frock
cwoat,
the
vu'st
time-vier
new;
Wi'
yollow
buttons
all
o'
brass,
That
glitter'd
in
the
zun
lik'
glass;
An'
pok'd
'ithin
the
button-hole
A
tutty
he'd
a-begg'd
or
stole.
A
span-new
wes-co't,
too,
he
wore,
Wi'
yellow
stripes
all
down
avore;
An'
tied
his
breeches'
lags
below
The
knee,
wi'
ribbon
in
a
bow;
An'
drow'd
his
kitty-boots
azide,
An'
put
his
laggens
on,
an'
tied
His
shoes
wi'
strings
two
vingers
wide,
Because
'twer
Easter
Zunday.
An'
after
mornen
church
wer
out
He
come
back
hwome,
an'
stroll'd
about
All
down
the
vields,
an'
drough
the
leane,
Wi'
sister
Kit
an'
cousin
Jeane,
A-turnen
proudly
to
their
view
His
yollow
breast
an'
back
o'
blue.
The
lambs
did
play,
the
grounds
wer
green,
The
trees
did
bud,
the
zun
did
sheen;
The
lark
did
zing
below
the
sky,
An'
roads
wer
all
a-blown
so
dry,
As
if
the
zummer
wer
begun;
An'
he
had
sich
a
bit
o'
fun!
He
meade
the
maidens
squeal
an'
run,
Because
'twer
Easter
Zunday.
William Barnes
William Barnes, (born Feb. 22, 1801, Bagber, near Sturminster Newton, Dorsetshire, Eng.—died Oct. 7, 1886, Winterbourne Came, Dorsetshire), English dialect poet whose work gives a vivid picture of the life and labour of rural southwestern England and includes some moving expressions of loss and grief, such as “The Wife A-Lost” and “Woak Hill.” He was also a gifted philologist, and his linguistic theories as well as his poetry influenced two major writers, Thomas Hardy and Gerard Manley Hopkins.