My Mary (excerpt)

Who (save in sunday bib & tuck)
Goes daily (waddling like a duck)
Oer head & ears in grease & muck
My Mary

Unus'd to pattins or to clogs

Who takes the swill to serve the hogs?
And steals the milk for cats and dogs
My Mary

Who frost & Snow as hard as nails
Stands out o' doors & never fails
To wash up things & scour the pails
My Mary

Who bussles night & day in short
At all catch jobs of every sort
& gains her mistress' favor for't
My Mary

& who is oft repaid wi praise?
In doing what her mistress says
& yielding to her wimmy ways
My Mary

For theres none apter I believe
At ‘creeping up a Mistress' sleve’
Then this low kindred stump of Eve
My Mary

Who when the baby's all besh—t
To please its mamma kisses it?
And vows no Rose on earths so sweet
My Mary 

The Poems of John Clare

ed. J. W. Tibble (2 volumes, Dent, 1935)