My love she is a modest girl

Another amazing Clare poem from his Asylum years.  Again, not in any collection I can find.  Love the internal rhymes.

My love she wore a muslin cap & trim[m]ed wi' ribbons blue 
What time the trees were full o' sap & meadows cowslips new 
In meadows & on meadow banks in baulks & clover too 
The white horse daisys stand in ranks all silvered wi' the dew 

My love she wore a pleasant gown & owned a rosy face 
The prettiest girl o' half the town the finest i' the place 
Her waist was sweet & sweet her size fleshy & fair not tall

Bright as the milkmaids were her eyes her neck white as the wall 

A muslin cap my love had on & trimmed wi' ribbons blue 
When grass was green to look upon & steamed wi' morning dew 
Her face was like the cabbage rose her bosom lilly white 
Her lips are red her mild eye glows like evens dewy light 

My love she is a modest girl a pleasant gown she wears 
Her teeth are like two rows O' pearl & glossy brown her hair 
I feel transported by her smile & by her frown undone 
I'll meet her by the awthorn stile where both will seem as one

(line 8 ‘Milkmaids’ = ladysmock)

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Image by my friend Annie Lee