AH! when our wedded life begun,

Theäse cleän-wall'd house of ours wer new; this

Wi’ thatch as yollor as the zun yellow

Avore the cloudless sky o’ blue;

The sky o’ blue that then did bound

The blue-hilled worold's flow'ry ground.

An’ we've a-vound it weather-brown'd,

As Spring-tide blossoms oben'd white,

Or Fall did shed, on zunburnt ground,

Red apples from their leafy height:

Their leafy height, that Winter soon

Left leafless to the cool-feäced moon.

An’ raïn-bred moss ha’ staïn'd wi’ green

The smooth-feäced wall's white-morter'd streaks,

The while our childern zot between sat

Our seats avore the fleäme's red peaks:

The fleäme's red peaks, till axan white ashes

Did quench em vor the long-sleep'd night.

The bloom that woonce did overspread once

Your rounded cheäk, as time went by,

A-shrinkèn to a patch o’ red,

Did feäde so soft's the evenèn sky:

The evenèn sky, my faithful wife,

O’ days as feäir's our happy life.