An After Repentance

I seek the shops thats full o noise

Where signs in gay temptations hing
& join the ranting roaring boys
To blunt old memorys hornet sting

Past is the scene of loves delights
Curst bitter dregs the sweet suceed
Gone is my honey mooning nights
How hard loves sweets shoud prove a deed

But parsons lessons fools decieve

Their pocket fees their preachings suit
Wi out we wed theyd makes believe
To taste of loves forbidden fruit
Good L---d I tremble at the crime
A sinfull sad unruly lout
I quake I quake at gossip time
Whose tongue blabs every secret out

The Poems of John Clare

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

One of Clare's little known poems that figures in the new Lee/Rowe volume "The Poet in Love".