Ammon Wrigley - "Town and Country"
The following is a transcription of a work by Saddleworth poet Ammon Wrigley (1861-1946).
Town and Country
- “I couldn’t live on your hills”, she said,
- “They’re bare and cold to me,
- Give me the town, the pleasant shops,
- And pretty gowns to see”.
- “If I should climb your dirty moors
- I know they’d hurt my feet,
- I'd rather go with folks at eve
- Shop gazing through the street”.
- “The picture houses thronged at night,
- The film stars lovely things,
- With powdered cheeks and painted lips
- Are angels without wings”.
- “The dance halls full of pretty girls,
- The music, life and swing;
- And you go out of doors to hear
- A silly skylark sing”.
- “You country folks are half asleep
- No matter what you think;
- You've no fine rooms where folks like me
- Smoke cigarettes and drink”.
- “And as for colour, see the shops
- Ablaze with ribbons bright,
- And all you see are dreary fields
- And stone walls black as night”.
- “Your coloured ribbons, miss”, I said,
- “Are woven in a loom;
- “Tis God who weaves on Alderman,
- When heather is in bloom.”
- “There is a kind of beauty dear,
- God never takes to town;
- When bracken’s gold in Wessenden,
- And Lingreave’s russet brown”.
- “He has a shop at Easter Gate,
- And one at South Clough Head;
- And one not far from Isle of Skye
- When cloudberries are red’.
- “God does not offer gowns for sale
- He gives to all who care;
- You cannot put them on your back,
- They’re for your soul to wear”.
- “You'll see Him in the April fields
- When they are flower strewn;
- And in the hawthorns on a hedge
- On blossom days in June”.
- “You to your streets and fashion shops,
- Your painted film stars too;
- But I who love the lonely hills,
- Will never change with you”.