I had scarcely sat down to examine the beautiful flower before I discovered a smoke rising from the wood which I found to proceed from a camp of gispies & I had scarcely discovred the smoke before a fine dark gipsey girl stood before me with her fine black hair parted over her forhead wrapt in a red silk hankerchief & a red cloak negligently fastened with a hook & eye just below the swelling of a bosom that might win a wish from a prince to make a pillow of under the green wood tree & with as little ceremony as if she had known me a lifetime Pet MS A46 p56-7
The
daisy button tipped wi' dew Green like the grass was sleeping On every thing 'neath heaven blue In moonlight dew was
weeping In dark wood sung the Nightingale The moon shone round
above me My arms were clasped round Mary Gale My dearest do you
love me Her head a woodbine wet wi' dew Held in the moonlight
sleeping And two in one together grew Wi' daisy buds a weeping O' Mary Gale sweet Mary Gale How round and bright above
thee The moon looks down on grassy vale My dearest can you
love me How sweet the moonlight sleeps and still Firdale and
hedge row brere The mole wharps mound and distant hill Is moonlight
every where The totter grasses pendalums Are still as night above me The bees are gone and nothing hums My dearest do you
love me The moonlight sleeps o'er wood and wall Sweet Mary While
you'r nigh me Can any charm O' courtship fail And any joy pass by me The gossamer all wet wi' dew Hung on the brere above me She leaned her cheek and said ‘I do’ And ever mean to
love thee LP II 775
Come hither, my dear one, my choice one, and rare one, And let us be walking the meadows so fair, Where on pilewort and daisies the eye fondly gazes, And the wind plays so sweet in thy bonny brown hair.
Come with thy maiden eye, lay silks and satins by; Come in thy russet or grey cotton gown; Come to the meads, dear, where flags, sedge, and reeds appear, Rustling to soft winds and bowing low down.
Come with thy parted hair, bright eyes, and forehead bare; Come to the whitethorn that grows in the lane; To banks of primroses, where sweetness reposes, Come, love, and let us be happy again.
Come where the violet flowers, come where the morning showers Pearl on the primrose and speedwell so blue; Come to that clearest brook that ever runs round the nook Where you and I pledged our first love so true. Tibbles II 480
From Helpston in rural Northamptonshire, John Clare was born in 1793. He is now regarded as the most important poet of the natural world from Britain. He wrote many poems, prose and letters about love, sex, corruption and politics, environmental and social change, poverty and folk life. Even in his 'madness', his talents were not diminished. Ronald Blythe, past President of the Clare Society, saw Clare as "... England's most articulate village voice".
Clare died, aged 71, in 1864.