"This is the second volume in a series that sets out to provide a phonemic transcript and an audio recording of each individual poem in Barnes's three collections of Poems of Rural Life in the Dorset Dialect. Beginning with two poems that inspired Vaughan Williams to set them to music, and ending with a paean of praise for the poet's native county, this second collection contains 105 poems of immense range and power. There are poems of longing, love, and loss
pain and protest
tears and laughter
grief and consolation
feasting and celebration
music and birdsong
falsehood, friendship, and faith
generosity and meanness
bad temper and good
stasis and travel
flowers and trees
storm and calm. "Here," as Dryden said of Chaucer's poems, "is God's plenty"."