I got to head and read it as head and gave up…

It’s a 100 year old poem, I’m guessing it was pronounced different in that area at the time.

Bade is the past tense of “bid” and is technically pronounced the same as “bad”. Link: https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/bade

Essentially, the pronunciation follows the same pattern as words like “sit - sat”, but the spelling pattern follows a different Old English pattern.

It is a particularly masochistic poem to read aloud. 😁