The Hollow Woak

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The woaken tree, so hollow now,
  To souls ov other times wer sound,
  An' reach'd on ev'ry zide a bough
  Above their heads, a-gather'd round,
  But zome light veet
  That here did meet
  In friendship sweet, vor rest or jaÿ,
  Shall be a-miss'd another Maÿ.

  My childern here, in plaÿvul pride
  Did zit 'ithin his wooden walls,
  A-mentèn steätely vo'k inside
  O' castle towers an' lofty halls.
  But now the vloor
  An' mossy door
  That woonce they wore would be too small
  To teäke em in, so big an' tall.

  Theäse year do show, wi' snow-white cloud,
  An' deäsies in a sprinkled bed,
  An' green-bough birds a-whislèn loud,
  The looks o' zummer days a-vled;
  An' grass do grow,
  An' men do mow,
  An' all do show the wold times' feäce
  Wi' new things in the wold things' pleäce.

© William Barnes