Peaceful windings


Wereover many a stile neeth willows grey
The winding footpath leaves the public way
Free from the dusty din & ceasless chime
Of bustling waggons in the summer time
Crossing a brook—were braving storms in vain
Two willows fell & still for brigs remain
Corn field & clover closes leading down
In peacful windings to the neighbouring town

Follow for daily #JohnClare postings
#poetry  #environment #truth #honesty

Dear spots


Tho thou wert not the place of my being & birth
Tho I spent not the sports of my childhood in thee
Mid the dear spots we call edens on earth
Thou art one of the fairest thats known unto me
Five beautiful springs thee & thine have I known
Thy woods & thy brooks winding peacful at will
Thy heaths & like hermitage standing alone
Thy cottage that smoaks by the side of a hill

Follow for daily #JohnClare postings
#poetry  #environment #truth #honesty

The dear haunts


I lovd the dear haunts of the sweet solitudes
That round its lome walls in the circle do lye
Were no living thing all the season intrudes
But a bird or a bee humming wearisome bye
& Ive hunted for spots by the brook & have found
The lonliest existing an hour to abide
With nought but the green light of trees flitting round
& the shadow that seemed stretchd asleep by my side

Follow for daily #JohnClare postings
#poetry  #environment #truth #honesty

My wild eye in rapture


Swamps of wild rush beds & sloughs squashy traces

Grounds of rough fallows wi thistle & weed
Flats & low vallies of king cups & daiseys
Sweetest of subjects are ye for my reed

Ye commons left free in the rude rags of nature
Ye brown heaths be cloathed in furze as ye be
My wild eye in rapture adores e'ery feature
Yere as dear as this heart in my bosom to me

O native endearments I woud not forsake ye
I woud not forsake ye for sweetest of scenes
For sweetest of gardens that nature coud make me
I woud not forsake ye dear vallies & greens

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

Sweet solitude


Sweet solitude what joy to be alone
In wild wood shady dell to stay for hours
Twould soften hearts if they were hard as stone
To see glad Butterflies & smiling flowers
Tis pleasant in these quiet lonely places
Where not the voice of Man our pleasure mars
To see the little bees with coal black faces
Gath'ring sweets from little flowers like stars

Follow for daily #JohnClare postings
#poetry  #environment #truth #honesty

Solitude


   
O how sweet I cannot tell
    With thee at that hour to dwell
    Stretchd the mossy bank beside
    Lye to view the random tide
    Where no clowns has chopt from thence
    Bush nor stake to mend his fence
    Cornerd stones & pebbles round
    Breaking dasht wi mellow sound
    Wether this or that to see
    I am blest if Im wi thee
    & full dear has been the hour
    Spent wi in thy noon day bower
    Prest wi thee thy mossy seat
    O its unexpressive sweet

(Lines deleted from the published version by his publisher)

Follow for daily #JohnClare postings
#poetry  #environment #truth #honesty