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The Firetail's Nest

By John Clare

Topics: classic

"Tweet" pipes the robin as the cat creeps by     Her nestling young that in the elderns lie,     And then the bluecap tootles in its glee,     Picking the flies from orchard apple tree,     And "pink" the chaffinch cries its well-known strain,     Urging its kind to utter "pink" again,     While in a quiet mood hedgesparrows try     An inward stir of shadowed melody.     Around the rotten tree the firetail mourns     As the old hedger to his toil returns,     Chopping the grain to stop the gap close by     The hole where her blue eggs in safety lie.     Of everything that stirs she dreameth wrong     And pipes her "tweet tut" fears the whole day long.

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""Tweet" pipes the robin as the cat creeps by..."

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Author:John Clare

""Tweet" pipes the robin as the cat creeps by..." by John Clare

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"The Text is taken from Percy's Reliques (1765), vol. i. p. 71, 'given from two MS. copies, transmitted from Scotland.' Herd had a very similar bal"

John Clare

About John Clare

John Clare (1793–1864) was an English poet known as the "peasant poet" for his humble origins. His nature poetry—including "I Am" and "Badger"—captures the English countryside with extraordinary precision and emotional honesty, and he is now recognized as one of the finest nature poets in the language.

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