[BITList] Wiltshire Dialect

[John Feltham]

FWD:


Here is my favourite Wiltshire dialect poem which has been read and 
understood before lunch at a number of Pewsey Lay reunions in OZ.  Some have 
even understood the message!!

Max Lay

Cupboard Love  - A Pewsey, Wiltshire poem



Joe Powell round by Maningford
Were out one day a-walkin'.
When he caught up wi' Martha Lamb;
An' here's how they got talkin'

"An' w'ere be you gwain, Martha Jane?
You do look smart to-day!"
"Oh! I be off to Pewsey Veast
Just vor half a day."

"Med I walk wi' 'ee, Martha, 'cause
I be a-gwain ther' too?"
"Ca'st if thee bist mind to, Joe,
Road's wide enough, snaw you!"

"I'm vond o' thee, snaw, Martha Jane,
I likes thy pretty vace!"
"Lar, go on wi' thy vlatterin',
An' keep thy proper place!"

"The place what I ood like to have
Is arm-in-arm wi' thee,
Ther' beant no place I knaws on
Wher' I ood zooner be!"

"If I were 'lowed to court thee dear
Vrom thee I'd never vlench,
Because thee bist a dabster cook
An' a main hard-workin' wench.

I've chucked up courtin' Sally Marsh
Her were a featish good un
I med ha' married her - but her's
No hand wi' viggy-pudden!

Her maade I up a sample duff -
I took'n vor me nuncheon;
But t'were poor stuff, zo dry an' tough
It maade my chops ache munchin!

I wants a good cook, Martha, that
Is why vor thee I'm makin'
Vor I'm main vond o' viggy duff
To go wi' greens an' bacon!"

"Ah! Cupboard Love!" quoth Martha Jane,
"Thic zart won't do vor I
Bezides thee bist too fat be half,
Zo, I wish thee 'Good-bye'.

No wench wi' sense will marry thee
If her can vind another
An' a chap as on'y wants a cook
Should bide long wi' his mother!"

That proper cut Joe Powell's comb,
An' - mad as zome wild beast -
He stomped off back the way he'd come
Not on to Pewsey Veast.