Oer the heath

Here oft though grass & moss are seen 

Tannd brown for want of showers 

Still keeps the ling its darksome green 

Thick set with little flowers 

& yonder mingling oer the heath 

The furze delights to dwell 

Whose blossoms steal the summers breath 

& shed a sultry smell 

Here threatning ploughs have tried in vain 

To till the sandy soil 

Yon slope already sown with grain 

Shows nature mocks the toil

Follow me for daily #JohnClare postings. 

#photography #poetry #environment

Alehouses

Twas by the road but I've forgot 
Th'name o' the place where it was at 
But does'n't matter where

Being rather faint for want o' drink
(Yet not so sadly off for chink)
I went to ha' some beer

On entering in a house at hand
(As alehouses do mostly stand
To catch all passers by)

I told my wants & sat me down
'Gen two near neighbours o' the town
A talking very sly

At which so eager o' my beer
I first ga' little heed to hear
Untill I 'gan to see

Some queerish beckons come in vogue
& hear the name o' thief & rogue
& then a look at me 

Follow for daily #JohnClare posts

#poetry  #environment #truth #honesty

Mist like moister

The sun now sinks behind the woodland green 
& twittering spangles glow the leaves between 
So bright & dazzling on the eye it plays 
As if noons heats had kindld to a blaze 
But soon it dims in red & heavier hues 
& shows wild fancy cheated in her views 
A mist like moister rises from the ground 
& deeper blueness stains the distant round 

Follow for daily #JohnClare posts

#poetry  #environment #truth #honesty

Image from my friend #JohnAbbott

Heath & Plain

Tracked the red fallow field & heath & plain
Or sought the brook to drink & roam again
While the glad shepherd traced their tracks along
Free as the lark & happy as her song
But now alls fled & flats of many a dye 
That seemed to lengthen with the following eye
Moors losing from the sight far smooth & blea
Where swopt the plover in its pleasure free
Are banished now with heaths once wild & gay 
As poets visions of lifes early day

Follow for daily #JohnClare posts

#poetry  #environment #truth #honesty

Dire Nakedness

But now alas my charms are done 
For shepherds & for thee 
The cow boy with his green is gone 
& every bush & tree 
Dire nakedness oer all prevails 
Yon fallows bare & brown 
Is all beset wi' post & rails 
& turned upside down
The gentley curving darksom bawks 
That stript the Cornfields oer 
& provd the Shepherds daily walks 
Now prove his walks no more 
The plough has had them under hand 
& over turnd 'em all 
& now along the elting Land 
Poor swains are forcd to maul

bawks = narrow strip of grass between ploughed strips

elting = damp, new ploughed soil

maul = plod with difficulty

Follow for daily #JohnClare posts

#poetry  #environment #truth #honesty

A heavy wet

I'm joining John Clare... "Letter to Henry Behnes, Dec 29 1828

“… as for me I have no amusement but looking over my few books by the fireside or walking out into the fields & thinking about my friends – I have drunk your health often Harry over heavy wet..."

Follow for daily #JohnClare posts

#poetry  #environment #truth #honesty

Old green lane

The spreading oak at the lane end 
Was neer so green and bright 
Nor the thorn so sweet in that lone glen 
As they were that sunday night 
The sun it set & lowly dropt
Yet gold clouds did remain 
& though the singing birds are stopt 
I love the Old green lane 
The beaten path went winding on 
The bushes lookd so green 
The leveret it went scouting on 
& nothing else was seen

Follow for daily #JohnClare posts

#poetry  #environment #truth #honesty

The river sweeping

Now came the river sweeping round the nooks 
By thirsty summers pilgrimage subdued 
Dark & yet clear the glassy water looks 
As slow & easy in majestic mood 
It sweeps along by osier crowded glen 
Untill it winds an almost naked flood 
Along the flats of the wooded fen 
Yet even there prolific summer dwells 
& garnishes its sides in vivid green 
Of flags & reeds the otters pathless den

Follow for daily #JohnClare posts

#poetry  #environment #truth #honesty

Image from my friend #JohnAbbott

Living death

Abscence in love is worse than any fate
Summer is winters desert & the spring
Is like a ruined city desolate
Joy dies & hope retires on feeble wing
Nature sinks heedless birds unheeded sing.
‘Tis solitude in cities crowds all move
Like living death though all to life still cling
The strongest bitterest thing that life can prove
Is womans undisguise of hate & love

Follow for daily #JohnClare posts

#poetry  #environment #truth #honesty

Pearls by the morning

Though grass is green though flowers are gay
& everywhere they be
What are the leaves on branches hung 
Unto the withered tree
Lifes happiest gifts & what are they
Pearls by the morning strung
Which ere the noon are swept away 
Short as a cuckoos song
A nightingales the summer is
Can pleasure make us proud 
To think when swallows fly away 
They leave her in her shroud

Follow for daily #JohnClare posts

#poetry  #environment #truth #honesty

Image from my friend #JohnAbbott

Full & brimming

The floods come oer the meadow leas

The dykes are full & brimming
Field furrows reach the horses knees
Where wild ducks oft are swimming
The skies are black the fields are bare
The trees their coats are loosing
The leaves are dancing in the air
The sun its warmth refusing

Brown are the flags & fading sedge
& tanned the meadow plains
Bright yellow is the osier hedge
Beside the brimming drains
The crows sit on the willow tree
The lake is full below
But still the dullest thing I see
Is self that wanders slow

Follow for daily #JohnClare posts

#poetry  #environment #truth #honesty

Gold unto gold

The sun rises bright oer the oaks in the spinney
Bringing gold unto gold on the winbushes there
Blossoming bright as a new minted guinea
& moist wi' the mist of the morns dewy air
The flower is bowed down & I let the tired Bee be
All wet wi' night dew & unable to flye
Such a kindness in me would be pleasure to Phebe
A poor trampled Insect would cause her to sigh

Follow for daily #JohnClare posts

#poetry  #environment #truth #honesty

Silence sitteth now

Summers pleasures they are gone like to visions every one
& the cloudy days of autumn & of winter cometh on
I tried to call them back but unbidden they are gone
Far away from heart & eye & forever far away
Dear heart & can it be that such raptures meet decay
I thought them all eternal when by Langley Bush I lay
I thought them joys eternal when I used to shout & play
On its bank at "clink and bandy” "chock" & "taw" & "ducking stone”
Where silence sitteth now on the wild heath as her own
Like a ruin of the past all alone

Follow for daily #JohnClare posts

#poetry  #environment #truth #honesty

Familiar fondness

In the same sence of her it may be said 
Whos guiding hand my infant foot-steps led 
To learning path that her impressing plan 
First laid the basis of the future man 
& by imbibing what she simply taught 
My taste for reading there was surely caught 
However if it was or not fullfild 
(In philosophic arguments not skilld)
Its naught to me her memory can impart 
Familiar fondness to a feeling heart

Follow for daily #JohnClare posts

#poetry  #environment #truth #honesty

Image from the amazing #LadyHarwarden collection from 1860 (colourised)

Flattery findeth friends

On National Poetry Day, a poem for our ‘leaders’ (everywhere) by the great John Clare, written in about 1827:

The flatterers meet with smiles
The cunning find their friends
Without I made my pilgrimage
& so met small amends
I looked on fame as merits plea
Twas spring but winter frowned on me

To cringe to menial slaves
To worship titled power
To bend the knee to knaves
The price of earthly dower
Is what I neer was taught to pay
So empty [that] Ive turned away

Where pleasing is to flatter
Where loving is to hate
To praise what we at heart abuse
In love & church & state
This is the worlds but not my game
So poor I am without the shame

Tho flattery findeth friends
In every grade & state
& telling truth offends
The lowly & the great
Truth when the worst is bye shall rise
When follys vapour stinks & flyes

Prides pomps are shadows all
& Titles honours toys
Great births in merits oft are small
& all their praise but noise
Rainbows upon the skyes of May
Fade soon but scarce so soon as they

Follow for daily #JohnClare posts

#poetry  #environment #truth #honesty

October

The inly pleased tho solitary boy
Journeying and muttering o’er his dreams of joy
Haunting the hedges for the wilding fruit
Of sloe or blackberry just as fancys suit
The sticking groups in many a ragged set
Brushing the woods their harmless loads to get
& gipseys camps in some snug sheltered nook
Where old lane hedges like the pasture brook
Run crooking as they will by wood & dell
In such lone spots these wild wood roamers dwell
On commons where no farmers claims appear
Nor tyrant justice rides to interfere
Such the abodes neath hedge or spreading oak
& but discovered by its curling smoke
Puffing & peeping up as wills the breeze
Between the branches of the coloured trees
Such are the pictures that October yields
To please the poet as he walks the fields

‘sticking groups’ = folk collecting fallen branches for fuel

Follow for daily #JohnClare posts

#poetry  #environment #truth #honesty

Image from my friend #CarryAkroyd