At Casterbridge Fair-Richard Burton

[ti:At Casterbridge Fair] [ar:Richard Burton] [al:The Richard Burton Poetry Collection] [by:] [offset:0] [00:00.00]At Casterbridge Fair - Richard Burton [00:00.83]Sing Ballad singer raise a hearty tune [00:03.13] [00:04.23]Make me forget that there was ever a one [00:05.98]I walked with in the meek light of the moon [00:08.26] [00:09.22]When the day's work was done [00:10.82] [00:12.17]Rhyme Ballad rhymer start a country song [00:14.66] [00:15.30]Make me forget that she whom I loved well [00:17.74]Swore she would love me dearly love me long [00:20.60]Then what I cannot tell [00:23.92] [00:25.48]Sing Ballad singer from your little book [00:27.52]Make me forget those heart breaks achings fears [00:30.61] [00:31.20]Make me forget her name her sweet sweet look [00:34.58] [00:35.76]Make me forget her tears [00:37.41] [00:43.70]These market dames mid aged with lips thin drawn [00:47.07]And tissues sere [00:48.51] [00:49.70]Are they the ones we loved in years agone [00:51.94] [00:52.82]And courted here [00:53.74] [00:55.22]Are these the muslined pink young things to whom [00:58.27]We vowed and swore [00:59.77]In nooks on summer Sundays by the Froom [01:02.54] [01:03.91]Or Budmouth shore [01:04.82] [01:06.48]Do they remember those gay tunes we trod [01:09.08]Clasped on the green [01:10.39] [01:11.30]Aye trod till moonlight set on the beaten sod [01:13.95]A satin sheen [01:15.23] [01:16.66]They must forget forget [01:18.98] [01:19.71]They cannot know [01:20.47]What once they were [01:21.68] [01:22.52]Or memory would transfigure them and show [01:24.61]Them always fair [01:26.72] [01:32.97]Black on frowns east on Maidon [01:34.73] [01:35.40]And westward to the sea [01:36.75] [01:37.60]But on neither is his frown laden [01:39.07]With scorn as his frown on me [01:41.34] [01:42.42]At dawn my heart grew heavy [01:44.52]I could not sip the wine [01:46.26] [01:46.87]I left the jocund bevy [01:48.31]And that young man of mine [01:50.11] [01:51.59]The roadside elms pass by me [01:53.92] [01:55.14]Why do I sink with shame [01:56.72]When the birds a perch there eye me [01:58.92] [02:00.03]They too have done the same [02:01.83] [02:07.82]Nobody took any notice of her [02:09.38]As she stood on the causey kerb [02:11.03] [02:12.01]All eager to sell her honey and apples [02:14.13]And bunches of garden herb [02:15.93] [02:16.88]And if she had offered to give her wares [02:18.56]And herself with them too that day [02:20.61] [02:21.58]I doubt if a soul would have cared to [02:23.57]Take a bargain so choice away [02:25.76] [02:27.31]But chancing to trace her sunburnt grace [02:29.40]That morning as I passed nigh [02:31.48] [02:32.43]I went and I said Poor maidy dear [02:35.49] [02:36.22]And will none of the people buy [02:37.75] [02:39.18]And so it began; and soon we knew [02:41.97]What the end of it all must be [02:43.92] [02:44.64]And I found that though no others had bid [02:46.88] [02:47.97]A prize had been won by me [02:49.97] [02:53.94]And are ye one of Hermitage [02:55.74]Of Hermitage by Ivel Road [02:58.38]And do ye know in Hermitage [02:59.99]A thatch roofed house where sengreens grow [03:02.58] [03:03.32]And does John Waywood live there still [03:05.96]He of the name that there abode [03:07.58]When father hurdled on the hill [03:09.36]Some fifteen years ago [03:11.16] [03:12.21]Does he now speak of Patty Beech [03:13.94]The Patty Beech he used to see [03:16.99] [03:17.63]Or ask at all if Patty Beech [03:19.10]Is known or heard of out this way [03:21.06] [03:21.78]Ask ever if she's living yet [03:23.38]And where her present home may be [03:25.23] [03:25.80]And how she bears life's fag and fret [03:28.18] [03:28.72]After so long a day [03:30.27] [03:31.47]In years agone at Hermitage [03:33.39]This faded face was counted fair [03:35.46]None fairer; and at Hermitage [03:37.39]We swore to wed when he should thrive [03:39.82] [03:41.25]But never a chance had he or I [03:42.97] [03:43.63]And waiting made his wish outwear [03:45.87] [03:46.50]And Time that dooms man's love to die [03:49.56] [03:50.84]Preserves a maid's alive [03:53.26] [03:59.73]The singers are gone from the Cornmarket place [04:02.07]With their broadsheets of rhymes [04:04.11] [04:04.92]The street rings no longer in treble and bass [04:07.54]With their skits on the times [04:09.48] [04:10.05]And the Cross lately thronged is a dim naked space [04:13.64]That but echoes the stammering chimes [04:16.15] [04:17.49]From Clock corner steps [04:18.57]As each quarter ding dongs [04:20.70]Away the folk roam [04:22.17]By the "Hart" and [04:23.14]Grey's Bridge into byways and drongs [04:26.05]Or across the ridged loam [04:27.84] [04:29.03]The younger ones shrilling the lately heard songs [04:31.55]The old saying [04:32.75] [04:33.75]Would we were home [04:34.65] [04:36.41]The shy seeming maiden so mute in the fair [04:38.77]Now rattles and talks [04:40.51]And that one who looked the most swaggering there [04:42.55]Grows sad as she walks [04:44.52] [04:45.07]And she who seemed eaten by cankering care [04:47.67] [04:48.18]In statuesque sturdiness stalks [04:51.00] [04:52.12]And midnight clears High Street of all but the ghosts [04:55.12]Of its buried burghees [04:56.66] [04:57.50]From the latest far back to those old Roman hosts [05:00.81]Whose remains one yet sees [05:02.59] [05:03.65]Who loved laughed and fought [05:06.07]Hailed their friends drank their toasts [05:08.99]At their meeting times here just as these