War

As we often find, John Clare has summarised our feelings, line 8-10 says it all for me today:

Gone is my Jemmy that threw his arm round me
& bore home my milk pails & milked my cow
The tempest may blow & the rain storm may drownd me
Theres ne’er a kind heart to be meeting me now

Like the odd larking upon the bleak meadows
& lorn mopeing quail on the hard frozen lea

Which the Gun of the hard hearted swain has made widows
I meet the sad trouble that war bringeth me

All hopes they are vain while the grim war is scowling

Its fate may already alight on him now

Thus sighd a lorn maid to the winter winds howling
Whose eyes swum wi tears as she rose from her cow

(From ‘The Milkmaids Lament’)

I will be speaking: 11am Saturday, 28th March 

At the John Clare Cottage in Helpston

to the title, “The Woke John Clare”

#poetry #environment 

#honesty

Comments welcome below