SONG "The beauties o' youth lovley Emma adorning"


[Image : Anne Lee]






















The beauties o' youth lovley Emma adorning
As the spring is first seen to disclose
When the dew dropping silver o' mays infant morning
Unfolds the sweet blush o' the rose
While her charms—O as varied as summers profusion
& ripe as the autumn for love
In her blue eyes sweet beaming the thrilling confusion
Near failing each bosom to move
While the snows o' the winter improvd on her bosom
No need o' a rival be told
—& O my sad pains—when I 'gan to disclose em
I found it as killing & cold

Early Poems of John Clare 1804-1822
ed. Eric Robinson, David Powell and Margaret Grainger
(Oxford, 2 volumes, I-II, 1989)

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