Yorkshire Dialect Poems (1673-1915) and traditional poems

Then an' Nae

     E. A. Lodge

     Privately printed by Mr. E. A. Lodge in a volume entitled
     Odds an' Ends (n. d.).

     When I were but a striplin'
        An' bare a scoor year owd,
     I thowt I'd gotten brains enew
        To fill all t' yeds(1) i' t' fowd.

     I used to roor wi' laffin'
        At t' sharpness o' my wit,
     An' a joke I made one Kersmiss
        Threw my nuncle in a fit.

     I used to think my mother
        Were a hundred year behund;
     An' my father—well, my father
        Nobbut fourteen aence to t' pund.

     An' I often turned it ovver,
        But I ne'er could fairly see
     Yaeiver(2) sich owd cronies
        Could hae bred a chap like me.

     An' whene'er they went to t' market,
        I put my fillin's in;
     Whol my father used to stop me
        Wi' "Prithee, hold thy din.

     "Does ta think we're nobbut childer,
        Wi' as little sense as thee?
     When thy advice is wanted,
        We'st axe thee, does ta see."

     But they gate it, wilta, shalta,
        An' I did my levil best
     To change their flee-blown notions,
        Whol their yeds were laid to t' west.

     This happened thirty year sin;
        Nae I've childer o' my own,
     At's gotten t' cheek to tell me
        At I'm a bit flee-blown.

     1. Heads.  2. However.