Bean Blossoms

I love the black e'en o' the scented bean blossom

And think o the dark eye of somebody


Its whiteness is just like the hue o her bosom


And thats my ain beautiful somebody


I luik on the flowers as I think on her face


They remind me o' sweet somebody


I long then to meet her in just such a place


A loving kiss I'd gie to somebody


How sweet the bean blossoms how rich the hedge rose


They seem like the presence of somebody


There's some like her features some hued like her clothes


They make me keep thinking o' somebody


In the west white and red clouds of even


Still bring me the image o' somebody


The fairest of all under Heaven


Is my beautiful lovely Miss somebody


Bean blossoms from furrow to ridge


Scenting sweetly remind me o somebody


The roses in bloom on the hedge


Are just like the image o somebody


I loo the black e'e o bean blossoms


Theyre like the sweet eyes o somebody


The lily reminds me of bosoms


And that is the bosom o somebody

The Later Poems of John Clare 1837-1864

ed. Eric Robinson and David Powell

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Unpublished elsewhere