Gold tinted west

Come beautiful maiden while autumn delays
& the sunsets so sweet in the gold tinted west
While the fading beach tree sets the woods in a blaze
& the lark sings his song ere he sinks into rest

In Autumns gone by how fondly I press't thee
& loved thee sincerely & so I do now
As I wandered along with thee ever near me
While the leaves they were fading on every bough

Follow for daily #JohnClare postings

#poetry  #environment #truth #honesty

Fond desire

Now melancholly autumn comes anew
With showery clouds & fields of wheat tanned brown
Along the meadow banks I peace pursue
& see the wild flowers gleaming up & down
Like sun & light—the ragworts golden crown
Mirrors like sunshine when sunbeams retire
& silver yarrow—theres the little town
& oer the meadows gleams that slender spire
Reminding me of one—& waking fond desire

Follow for daily #JohnClare postings

#poetry  #environment #truth #honesty

I saw a Bonny maid

From bank to bank the water roars - Like thunder in a storm
A Sea in sight of both the shores - Creating no alarm
The water birds above the flood - Fly o'er the foam and spray
And nature wears a gloomy hood - On this October day
And there I saw a bonny maid - That proved my hearts delight
All day she was a Goddess made - An angel fair at night
We loved and in each others power felt - Nothing to condemn
I was the leaf and she the flower - And both grew on one stem
I loved her lip her cheek her eye - She cheered my midnight gloom
A bonny rose neath Gods own sky - In one perrenial bloom
She lives mid pastures evergreen - And meadows ever fair
Each winter spring and summer scene - The sweetest woman there

Follow for daily #JohnClare postings

#poetry  #environment #truth #honesty

Thy truth

I love thee nature in my inmost heart
Go where I will thy truth seems from above
Go where I will thy landscape forms a part
Of heaven—e'en these fens where wood nor grove
Are seen—their very nakedness I love
For one dwells nigh that secret hopes prefer
Above the race of women—like the dove
I mourn her abscence—fate that would deter
My hate for all things—strengthens love for her

Follow for daily #JohnClare postings

#poetry  #environment #truth #honesty

Like living death

Abscence in love is worse than any fate
Summer is winters desert & the spring
Is like a ruined city desolate
Joy dies & hope retires on feeble wing
Nature sinks heedless — birds unheeded sing
‘Tis solitude in cities — crowds all move
Like living death — though all to life still cling 
The strongest bitterest thing that life can prove
Is womans undisguise of hate & love

Follow for daily #JohnClare postings

#poetry  #environment #truth #honesty

The evil air

The sleepy birds scared from their mossy nest

Beat through the evil air in vain for rest
& many a one the withering shades among
Wakened to perish oer its brooded young
The cattle startled with the sudden fright
Sickend from food & maddend into flight
& steed & beast in plunging speed pursued
The desperate struggle of the multitude
The faithful dogs yet knew their owners face
& cringing followd with a fearful pace
Joining the piteous yell with panting breath
While blasting lightnings followd fast with death
Then as Destruction stopt the vain retreat
They droppd & dying lickd their masters feet

Follow for daily #JohnClare postings

#poetry  #environment #truth #honesty

A ruin of the past

Summers pleasures they are gone like to visions every one
& the cloudy days of autumn & of winter cometh on
I tried to call them back but unbidden they are gone
Far away from heart & eye & forever far away
Dear heart & can it be that such raptures meet decay
I thought them all eternal when by Langley Bush I lay
I thought them joys eternal when I used to shout & play
On its bank at "clink and bandy” "chock" & "taw" & "ducking stone”
Where silence sitteth now on the wild heath as her own
Like a ruin of the past all alone

Follow for daily #JohnClare postings

#poetry  #environment #truth #honesty