Dorset Poems

This selection presents William Barnes's nineteenth-century poems of rural life, many originally written in the Dorset dialect, with facing or accompanying versions in standard English. The subjects are farm work, courtship, seasonal weather, parish neighbours, and the speech of the Blackmore Vale. Eclogues take the form of dialogues between country people; lyrics address lost love, childhood places, and the passing of old ways. Barnes's own small engravings appear with the verse. There is no narrative through-line. The book is a regional lyric collection, not a dialect glossary, though the language of the originals is part of its interest.

Quarter bound in pale orange cloth, pale grey moiré silk boards, pale orange cover label. Ann Muir marbled endleaves. Transparent plastic dust-cover. No slipcase.