Dolly Pentreath

Dolly Pentreath, who died in 1777 at

the age of one hundred and two, was

the last person to speak Cornish-

Holger Pedersen (Linguistic Science in

the Nineteenth Century).

At fable age she turned a hundred years

Of light to dark; and, as she was lone,

A tongue was turned to fod: of all her fears,

This, the incredible, the dodgeless one

To serve as data for posterity.

Clutching the hour, feeling force to sever,

She broke the pregnant air-to be, to be

Forever, forever, forever, forever.