Aw Wod This War Wer Ended

THERE’S nobody knows wod we’n gooan through
Sin th’ factories stopt tit [fost] ,
An’ heaw mitch loife’s bin [wasted] too,
An’ heaw mitch brass we’n lost;
Aw trys sometoimes to rekon up,
But ceawntin connud mend id;
When aw sit deawn wi nowt to sup ---
Aw wod this war wer ended!
A boddy’s loifetime’s nod so lung ---
Nod them [uz] lives to th’ lungest;
Sooa dusend id seem sadly weung
For th’ healthiest an’ strungust
To give three [wul] years’ pith an’ proide
To rust an’ ruin blended,
An’ ravin up o’ th’ loss besoide? ---
Aw wod this war wer ended!
A dacent chap ul do his best,
An’ eawt o’ wod he’s earnin
Ged th’ owdest son o trade, an’ th’ rest
O’ th’ lads a bit o’ learnin;
Bud iv he’s eawt o week; wey then,
Unschollard, unbefriended,
His childer grow up into men ---
Aw wod this war wer ended!
As toimes hes [bin] , aw owt some “tin”
For shop stuff ut Lung Nailey’s,
An’ cose aw cuddent pay ‘t, yo sin,
He’s gooan an’ sent th’ bum bailies;
They’n [sowd] us up, booath pot an’ pooak,
An’ paid th’ owd scoor off splendid;
They just dun wod they will wi fooak. ---
Aw wod this war wer ended!
Neaw aw feer noather dun nor bum,
Wi o their kith an’ kin: ---
They’ll fotch nowt eawt o’ th’ heause, by gum,
Becose there’s nowt left in.
Aw’m welly weary o’ meh loife,
An cuddend, if aw’d spend id,
Ged scran fo th’ kids, mesel, an’ th’ woife ---
Aw wod this war wer ended!
Some forrud foos ull rant reet herd,
An’ toke a deal o’ nonsense;
Bud let um gabble tell theyr terd,
Id’s reet enuff i won sense;
They waste their brass an’ rack their brains,
But, be nod yo offended,
They’ll ged their labor for their pains,
Bud th’ war’s nod thereby ended!
Some tokes for t’ North, an’ some for t’ South,
Wi’ o smooth an’ oily tung,
Bud iv they’d sense they’d shut their meawth,
For boath on ‘em’s i’ t’ wrung!
An’ it’s nooan reyt to let em feyt, ---
If t’ world hes wisdom --- lend id,
To set these two crookt people streyt,
An’ then t’ war ud be ended!

Title:Aw Wod This War Wer Ended

Author:W. M. Billington

Publication:The Blackburn Times

Published in:Blackburn

Date:October 10, 1863

Keywords:dialect, gender, poverty, war

Commentary

This piece in quite heavy dialect is written in a fairly close ballad meter, alternating four and three beat lines in iambic pentameter. The rhymes also alternate, and this is one of Billington’s more song-like poems. The density of the dialect is deliberate in that there is an attempt to shore up the authenticity of this as a representation of working-class expression. Lines such as ‘Some forrud foos ull rant reet herd’ (‘Some forward fools will rant right hard’) cleverly incorporate dialect terms and pronunciations with more traditional poetic devices such as alliteration.

Not only does this poem blend the usual personal account of financial hardship with commentary on the geopolitical situation, but it provides an example of the ways that different publication contexts can affect the decisions a poet makes in terms of the ideological position of the text. There are two versions of the last stanza of this poem, with the first newspaper publication reading like this:

Some tokes for t’ North, an’ some for t’ South,
Wi’ o smooth an’ oily tung,
Bud iv they’d sense they’d shut their meawth,
For boath on ‘em’s i’ t’ wrung!
An’ it’s nooan reyt to let em feyt, ---
If t’ world hes wisdom --- lend id,
To set these two crookt people streyt,
An’ then t’ war ud be ended!

And the second version, published long after the Cotton Famine in Billington’s Lancashire Songs, with Other Poems and Sketches in 1883, reads like this:

Some factory maisters tokes for t’Seawth
Wi’ a smooth an’ oily tongue,
Bud iv they’d sense they’d shut their meawth,
Or sing another song;
Let liberty nod slavery
Be fostered an’ extended-
Four million slaves mun yet be free,
An, then t’ war will be ended.

There is a clear difference here, with the first version much more equivocal regarding the nature of the American conflict, and suggesting that there are divided loyalties among ordinary people in Lancashire. The second version introduces a wholly new abolitionist message, and directs censure at the factory owners, suggesting a class divide in North-South support which is entirely absent in the first. If the second version was really first published in 1883, then its historical revisionism is all the more questionable, as it is attributed with an 1862 composition date. This second version is also one of eleven Cotton Famine poems which feature in Brian Hollingworth’s Songs of the People: Lancashire dialect poetry of the industrial revolution (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1977), the most significant anthology of such works during the twentieth century.

- SR.