Th'Owd Verses've T'Dales

(Translation: Traditional Poetry of Yorkshire)

The Window on the Cliff Top

W. H. Oxley

"What! Margery, still at your window
In this blinding storm and sleet!
Why, you can't see your hand before you,
And I scarce could keep my feet.

"Why, even the coast-guards tell me
That they cannot see the sand;
And we know, thank God, that the cobles
And yawls have got to land.

"There's five are safe at Scarbro',
And one has reach'd the Tyne,
And two are in the Humber,
And one at Quay, makes nine."

"Aye, aye, I'd needs be watchful,
There's niver a soul can tell,
An' happen 'twixt yan o' t' snaw-blints
Yan mud catch a glimpse o' t' bell.

"I reckon nowt o' t' coast-guards!
What's folks like them to say?
There's neer a yan amang 'em
Knaws owt aboot oor bay.

"I's niver leave my winder
Whiles there's folks as has to droon;
An' it wadna be the first time
As I've help'd ta wakken t' toon.

"I isn't good for mich noo,
For my fourscore years is past;
But I's niver quit my winder,
As long as life sal last.

"'Twas us as seed them Frenchmen
As wreck'd on Speeton sands;
'Twas me as seed that schooner
As founder'd wi' all hands.

"'Twas me first spied oor cobles
Reight ower t' end o' t' Brig,
That time when all was droonded;
I tell'd 'em by there rig.

"Aye, man, I's neen sae drowsy,
Don't talk o' bed to me;
I's niver quit my winder,
Whiles there's a moon to see.

"Don't talk to me o' coast-guards!
What's them to sike as me?
They hasn't got no husbands,
No childer, lost i' t' sea.

"It's nobbut them at's felt it,
As sees as I can see;
It's them as is deead already
Knaws what it is to dee.

"Ye'd niver understan' me;
God knaws, as dwells above,
There's hearts doon here, lives, broken,
What's niver lost their love.

"But better noo ye'd leave me,
I's mebbe not misen;
We fisher-folks has troubles
No quality can ken."