Mary Ann Abbott,I’ve a secret or two,
But love dare not blab it
To any but you:
It’s a secret as simple
As secrets all are,
In Mary Ann’s dimples
And beautiful hair.
Dark curls of her youth
And love light o’ her eye:
In that beautiful truth
Why is Mary so shy?
Nature ripened those charms, love,
Pride never made vain,
Why not come to my arms, love,
And kiss me again?
Lay bare those twin roses
That hide in thy hair,
Thy eye’s discloses
The sweetness hid there,
For thy dark curls lie on them
Like night in the air,
Like a nightmare upon them,
As nothing were there.
Come, my sweet Mary Ann,
Let me kiss and adore thee:
There’s none in this world
That ever was before thee
(1845-6)
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6 comments:
Not a comment specifically about your last blog, but about John Clare in general. Absolutely love your photographs - particularly the ones with wild flowers - so appropriate for the poetry. I find John Clare such a simple yet complex poet - I read him all the time. Try to write poetry myself as I am a country liver and lover!
Most of the flowers were taken by me... a few by friends. Clare is exactly as you suggest. Simple on the surface, but deep (very) when thought through.
just goes to show that through time immemorial, a guy will say ANYTHING to get a girl to lift her skirts...
Hi Laura,
Mmmm... I think often the girl is all to willing to please. But Clare also wrote of 'ruined' girls and indeed, of those who used their sex for gain.
Complex he was...
RR
This is my name, and now I have a song! Thank you!
Hello Mary... you might not know but Clare wrote hundreds of poems dedicated to Mary, his childhood sweetheart. her full name was Mary Joyce, and in his madness in later life he thought he had been married to her.
Search out "What is love" my favourite Clare poem dedicated to Mary (incidentally the name of my wife!
Roger R.
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