John Clare

""Perhaps it is foolish to remark it, but there are times and places when I am a child at those things"     --MACKENZIE.     Each scene of youth"

"The firetail tells the boys when nests are nigh     And tweets and flies from every passer-bye.     The yellowhammer never makes a noise     Bu"

"Christmass is come and every hearth     Makes room to give him welcome now     Een want will dry its tears in mirth     And crown him wi a holl"

"I'll weep and sigh when e'er she wills         To frown--and when she deigns to smile         It will be cure for all my ills,         And,"

"Expression, throbbing utterance of the soul,     Born in some bard, when with the muses' fires     His feeling bursts unaw'd, above control,"

"Again freckled cowslips are gilding the plain,     And crow-flowers yellow again o'er the lea,     Again the speck'd throstle comes in with her"

"How sweet I've wander'd bosom-deep in grain,     When Summer's mellowing pencil sweeps his shade     Of ripening tinges o'er the checquer'd plai"

"Now the sun his blinking beam     Behind yon mountain loses,     And each eye, that might evil deem,     In blinded slumber closes:     Now th"

"The crow sat on the willow tree     A-lifting up his wings,     And glossy was his coat to see,     And loud the ploughman sings,     "I love"

"These tiny loiterers on the barley's beard,     And happy units of a numerous herd     Of playfellows, the laughing Summer brings,     Mocking"

"O far is fled the winter wind,         And far is fled the frost and snow,         But the cold scorn on my love's brow         Hath never"

"He eats (a moment's stoppage to his song)     The stolen turnip as he goes along;     And hops along and heeds with careless eye     The passin"

"The beams in blossom with their spots of jet     Smelt sweet as gardens wheresoever met;     The level meadow grass was in the swath;     The h"

"Spring's sweets they are not fled, though Summer's blossom     Has met its blight of sadness, drooping low;     Still flowers gone by find beds"

"Mary, the day of love's pleasures has been,     And the day is o'erclouded and gone;     These eyes all their fulness of pleasure have seen,"

"The week before Easter, the days long and clear,         So bright shone the sun and so cool blew the air,         I went in the meadow some"

"Shades though you're leafless, save the bramble-spear     Whose weather-beaten leaves, of purple stain,     In hardy stubbornness cling all the"

"These children of the sun which summer brings     As pastoral minstrels in her merry train     Pipe rustic ballads upon busy wings     And glad"

"The Autumn's come again,      And the clouds descend in rain,      And the leaves are fast falling in the wood;      The Summer's voice is sti"

"On Sunday mornings, freed from hard employ,     How oft I mark the mischievous young boy     With anxious haste his pole and lines provide,"

"Why should man's high aspiring mind     Burn in him with so proud a breath,     When all his haughty views can find     In this world yields to"

"A path, old tree, goes by thee crooking on,     And through this little gate that claps and bangs     Against thy rifted trunk, what steps hath"

"O now the crimson east, its fire-streak burning,     Tempts me to wander 'neath the blushing morn,     Winding the zig-zag lane, turning and tur"

"Wordsworth I love, his books are like the fields,     Not filled with flowers, but works of human kind;     The pleasant weed a fragrant pleasur"

"Here's a valentine nosegay for Mary,      Some of Spring's earliest flowers;      The ivy is green by the dairy,      And so are these laurels"

"The skylark mounts up with the morn,      The valleys are green with the Spring,      The linnets sit in the whitethorn,      To build mossy d"

"O Native scenes, nought to my heart clings nearer     Than you, ye Edens of my youthful hours;     Nought in this world warms my affections dear"

"Come, pensive Autumn, with thy clouds, and storms,     And falling leaves, and pastures lost to flowers;     A luscious charm hangs on thy faded"

"I wandered out one rainy day     And heard a bird with merry joys     Cry "wet my foot" for half the way;     I stood and wondered at the noise"

"I look upon the hedgerow flower,      I gaze upon the hedgerow tree,      I walk alone the silent hour,      And think of Mary Appleby."

"Now is past--the happy now     When we together roved     Beneath the wildwood's oak-tree bough     And Nature said we loved.     Winter's bla"

"A false knight wooed a maiden poor,         And his high halls left he         To stoop in at her cottage door,         When night left non"

"When first we hear the shy-come nightingales,     They seem to mutter oer their songs in fear,     And, climb we eer so soft the spinney rails,"

"Supper removed, the mother sits,     And tells her tales by starts and fits.     Not willing to lose time or toil,     She knits or sews, and t"

"I seek her in the shady grove,      And by the silent stream;      I seek her where my fancies rove,      In many a happy dream;      I seek"

"'T is Spring, my love, 'tis Spring,      And the birds begin to sing:      If 'twas Winter, left alone with you,      Your bonny form and face"

"Thou scarest me with dreams.         -JOB.      When Night's last hours, like haunting spirits, creep      With listening terrors round the c"

"'Tis sweet to recollect life's past controls,     And turn to days of sorrow when they're bye,     And think of gentle friends and feeling souls"

"Of all the days in memory's list,     Those motley banish'd days;     Some overhung with sorrow's mist,     Some gilt with hopeful rays;     T"

"Is there another world for this frail dust     To warm with life and be itself again?     Something about me daily speaks there must,     And w"

"O painted clouds ! sweet beauties of the sky,     How have I view'd your motion and your rest,     When like fleet hunters ye have left mine eye"

"Sweet gem of infant fairy-flowers!     Thy smiles on life' unclosing hours,     Like sunbeams lost in summer showers,     They wake my fears;"

"What charms does Nature at the spring put on,     When hedges unperceived get stain'd in green;     When even moss, that gathers on the stone,"

"Sorrow came with downcast eyes,         And stole the lyre of love away.         - VAN DYK.     [From ACKERMANN'S "Juvenile Forget-me-not""

"O the evening's for the fair, bonny lassie O!     To meet the cooler air and walk an angel there,     With the dark dishevelled hair,     Bonny"

"[From "The Champion"]         Emblazoned Vapour! Half-eternal Shade!         That gathers strength from ruin and decay;--         Emperor of e"

"I cannot touch the harp again,      And sing another idle lay,      To cool a maddening, burning brain,      And drive the midnight fiend away"

"Old tree thou art wither'd--I pass'd thee last year,     And the blackbird snug hid in thy branches did sing,     Thy shadow stretch'd dark o'er"

"A Specimen of Clare's rough drafts     In a huge cloud of mountain hue     The sun sets dark nor shudders through     One single beam to shine aga"

"O Woman, lovely Woman, magic flower,     What loves, what pleasures in thy graces meet!     Thou blushing blossom, dropt from Eden's bower;"

"Young Jenny wakens at the dawn,      Fresh as carnations newly blown,      And o'er the pasture every morn      Goes milking o' the kye."

"Little trotty wagtail he went in the rain,     And tittering, tottering sideways he neer got straight again,     He stooped to get a worm, and l"