Songs of the Ridings by F. W. Moorman: The New Englishman

Songs of the Ridings

The New Englishman

I've lived all my life i' Keighley,
I'm a Yorkshire artisan;
An' when I were just turned seventy
I became an Englishman.

Nat'ralised German! nay, deng it!
I'm British-born, same as thee!
But I niver thowt mich to my country,
While my country thowt mich to me.

I were proud o' my lodge an' my union,
An' proud o' my town an' my shire;
But all t' consans o' t' nation,
I left to t' parson an' t' squire.

Class-war were t' faith that I Iived for,
I call'd all capit'lists sharks;
An' "T' workin' man has no country,"
Were my Gospel accordin' to Marx.

When I'd lossen my job back i' t' eighties,
An were laikin' for well-nigh two year,
Who said that an out-o'-wark fettler
Were costin' his country dear?

Owd England cared nowt about me,
I could clem wi' my barns an' my wife;
Shoo were ower thrang wi' buildin' up t' empire
To build up a brokken life.

"Ivery man for hissen," shoo said,
"An' t' dule can catch what he can;
Labour's cheap an' trade's worth more
Nor t' life of a workin' man."

When t' country were chuff, an' boasted
That t' sun niver set on her flags,
I thowt o' wer back-to-back houses,
Wer childer i' spetches an' rags,

When t' country drave by i' her carriage,
Wi' flunkies afore an' behind,
I left her to bettermy bodies,
An' I gav her a taste o' my mind.

But when shoo were liggin' i' t' gutter,
Wi' a milit'rist mob at her throit,
"Hands off her!" I cried, "shoo's my mother:"
An' I doffed my cap an' my coit.

I'd gien ower wark at seventy,
But I gat agate once more;
"I'll live for my country, not on her"
Were my words on t' fettlers' floor.

Shoo's putten her trust i' us workers,
We'll save her, niver fear;
Feight for her, live for her, dee for her,
Her childer that loves her dear.

Eight o' my grandsons has fallen,
My youngest lad's crippled i' t' arm;
But I'll give her choose-what shoo axes,
Afore I'll see her tak harm.

T' war is a curse an' a blessin',
If fowks could understan';
It's brokken my home an' my childer,
But it's made me an Englishman.

Notes (arranged alphabetically)

Afore : before
Artisan : skilled manual worker
Axes : asks
Barns : children, esp. young
Bettermy bodies : self important persons (sometime heard to say, "...better myself")
Childer : children
Choose-what : whatever (M)
Chuff : arrogant (M)
Clem : starve (M)
Coit : coat, jacket
Consans : concerns, affairs
Dule : probably devil; perhaps alluding to several meanings of dule, dole: guile; charity, received by the more fortunate; grief
Eighties : the eighteen-eighties (the war is the Great War, 1914-18)
Fettler : finisher in some industries
Fettlers' floor : workshop where fettling (finishing) is carried out
Gat agate : got on the way, got going, set to
Gien ower : given up, stopped
Hissen : himself
Laikin' : not working, unemployed or sick (from laik, to play)
Liggin' : lying
Lossen : lost
Nor : than
Ower thrang : too busy
Spetches : patches (M)
Throit : throat
Wer : our
While : until (M)

Explanations marked (M) are from Professor Moorman's original footnotes. Wherever possible, meanings have been checked in Dr Arnold Kellet's The Yorkshire Dictionary of Dialect, Tradition and Folklore (obtainable from the YDS), The Chambers Dictionary, and The Oxford English Dictionary. We have attempted at all times to be guided by context and to convey all probable intended meanings. We have not explained those words which differ only slightly in pronunciation and spelling from modern standard English.

Songs of the Ridings

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