from Odes: 14. Gin the Goodwife Stint

By Basil Bunting
The ploughland has gone to bent
and the pasture to heather;
gin the goodwife stint,
she’ll keep the house together.

Gin the goodwife stint
and the bairns hunger
the Duke can get his rent
one year longer.

The Duke can get his rent
and we can get our ticket
twa pund emigrant
on a C.P.R. packet.
 

Copyright Credit: Basil Bunting, “14. Gin the Goodwife Stint” from Complete Poems, edited by Richard Caddel. Reprinted with the permission of Bloodaxe Books Ltd., www.bloodaxebooks.com.
Source: Collected Poems (Bloodaxe Books, 1968)