SONG : "Come beautiful maiden while autumn delays"

[Image : Anne Lee]

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

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

The sky rolls away with its ocean of clouds
The earth seems as ocean, as billows the grove
Woods roar like the sea or the ships flapping shrouds
But earth has warm places for beings that love
By the hedges my sweet one we'll wander unseen
Where the leaves of all colours are leaving the trees
Where the rush beds all ripple like water so green
And not a wild flower is in bloom on the lea's—

Yet love is as warm as the sun in the sky
And the winds they breath[e] music though ever so loud
The lark pipes its song in the fleecy clouds high
And the crow o'er the ploughed fields walks lonely and proud—
Then come my dear maiden enjoy the sweet morning
Down the walk in the meadows we'll wander away
There the bramble hedge hangs o'er the path like an awning
And the hedge sparrow hides at the bottom all day

Come in the fields then my first loved Mary
Come while the harp of the woods is in tune
Here neath the knotty old oak we will tarry
While the sun press the hedges as warm as in June
Though time passes on thy name is a pleasure
So come my sweet Mary we'll wander alone
And I'll tell thee the trials I've suffered, My treasure
Yet forget every one if you'll call me your own—

The Later Poems of John Clare 1837-1864

ed. Eric Robinson and David Powell

(Oxford, 2 volumes, I-II, 1984)