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Lancashire Songs

Chapter 11: COME, JAMIE, LET’S UNDO THI SHOON.
By Edwin Waugh
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Poetry

About This Book

A collection of short songs and ballads written in a regional northern dialect that captures everyday rural and working-class life through domestic scenes, courtship, local characters, celebrations, and moments of hardship. The verse mixes humor and sentiment, employing conversational rhythms, refrains, and vivid local idiom to render communal ties, seasonal chores, and small pleasures. Arranged as brief lyric pieces, the poems alternate playful storytelling, moral reflection, and musical choruses that evoke the sounds and social routines of village life.

COME, JAMIE, LET’S UNDO THI SHOON.

Come, Jamie, let’s undo thi shoon, An’ don summat dry o’ thi feet; Wi’ toilin’ i’th sheaw’r up an’ deawn; Aw’m fleyed at thi stockins are weet; An’, here, wi’ my yung uns i’th neest, Aw bin heark’nin’ th’ patter o’th’ rain, An’ longin’ for th’ wanderin’ brid, To comfort my spirits again.
To-day, when it pelted at th’ height, “Aw’ll ston it no longer,” said I; An’, rayley, it didn’t look reet To keawer under cover so dry; So, though it were rainin’ like mad, Aw thought—for my heart gav’ a swell,— “Come deawn asto will, but yon lad Shall not have it o’ to hissel’!”
So, whippin’ my bucket i’th rain, Aw ga’ th’ bits o’ windows a swill; An’, though aw geet drenched to my skin, Aw’re better content wi’ mysel’; But, theaw stons theer smilin’ o’th floor, Like a sun-fleawer drippin’ wi’ weet; Eh, Jamie, theaw knowsn’t, aw’m sure, Heaw fain aw’m to see tho to-neet!
Why lass; what’s a sheawer to me? Wi’ plenty o’ sun in his breast, One’s wark keeps one hearty an’ free, An’ gi’s one a relish for rest; Aw’m noan made o’ sugar nor saut, That melts wi’ a steepin’ o’ rain; An’, as for my jacket,—it’s nought,— Aw’ll dry it by th’ leet o’ thi e’en!
So, sit tho deawn close by my side,— Aw’m full as a cricket wi’ glee; Aw’m trouble’t wi’ nothin’ but pride, An’ o’ on it owin’ to thee; Theaw trim little pattern for wives;— Come, give a poor body a kiss! Aw wish every storm ov e’r lives May end up as nicely as this!