The Winter's Spring

The winter comes; I walk alone,
I want no bird to sing;
To those who keep their hearts their own
The winter is the spring.
No flowers to please--no bees to hum--
The coming spring's already come.

I never want the Christmas rose
To come before its time;
The seasons, each as God bestows,
Are simple and sublime.
I love to see the snowstorm hing;
'Tis but the winter garb of spring.

I never want the grass to bloom:
The snowstorm's best in white.
I love to see the tempest come
And love its piercing light.
The dazzled eyes that love to cling
O'er snow-white meadows sees the spring.

I love the snow, the crumpling snow
That hangs on everything,
It covers everything below
Like white dove's brooding wing,
A landscape to the aching sight,
A vast expanse of dazzling light.

It is the foliage of the woods
That winters bring--the dress,
White Easter of the year in bud,
That makes the winter Spring.
The frost and snow his posies bring,
Nature's white spurts of the spring.

 

Signs of Winter

The cat runs races with her tail. The dog
Leaps oer the orchard hedge and knarls the grass.
The swine run round and grunt and play with straw,
Snatching out hasty mouthfuls from the stack.
Sudden upon the elmtree tops the crow
Unceremonious visit pays and croaks,
Then swops away. From mossy barn the owl
Bobs hasty out--wheels round and, scared as soon,
As hastily retires. The ducks grow wild
And from the muddy pond fly up and wheel
A circle round the village and soon, tired,
Plunge in the pond again. The maids in haste
Snatch from the orchard hedge the mizzled clothes
And laughing hurry in to keep them dry.
 

Don Juan a Poem

‘Poets are born’ – & so are whores – the trade is   

Grown universal – in these canting days          

Women of fashion must of course be ladies     

& whoreing is the business – that still pays     

Playhouses Ball rooms – there the masquerade is  

– To do what was of old – & now adays          

Their maids – nay wives so innoscent & blooming   

Cuckold their spouses to seem honest women

                                                                         

Milton sung Eden & the fall of man                   

Not woman for the name implies a wh—e        

& they would make a ruin of his plan               

Falling so often they can fall no lower              

Tell me a worse delusion if you can                  

For innoscence – & I will sing no more             

Wherever mischief is tis womans brewing        

Created from manself – to be mans ruin

                                                                         

The flower in bud hides from the fading sun    

& keeps the hue of beauty on its cheek           

But when full blown they into riot run              

The hue turns pale & lost each ruddy streak    

So ’t’is with woman who pretends to shun      

Immodest actions which they inly seek            

Night hides the wh–e – cupboards tart & pasty      

Flora was p-x-d – & womans quite as nasty

                                                                         

Marriage is nothing but a driveling hoax          

To please old codgers when they’re turned of forty

I wed & left my wife like other folks                  

But not untill I found her false & faulty             

O woman fair – the man must pay thy jokes    

Such makes a husband very often naughty     

Who falls in love will seek his own undoing      

The road to marriage is – ‘the road to ruin’

                                                                         

Love worse then debt or drink or any fate       

It is the damnest smart of matrimony              

A hell incarnate is a woman-mate                    

The knot is tied – & then we loose the honey  

A wife is just the protetype to hate                  

Commons for stock & warrens for the coney    

Are not more trespassed over in rights plan    

Then this incumberance on the rights of man                   

There’s much said about love & more of women     

I wish they were as modest as they seem       

Some borrow husbands till their cheeks are blooming     

Not like the red rose blush – but yellow cream

Lord what a while those good days are in coming –        

Routs Masques & Balls – I wish they were a dream

– I wish for poor men luck – an honest praxis  

Cheap food & cloathing – no corn laws or taxes

                                                                         

I wish – but there is little got bye wishing       

I wish that bread & great coats ne’er had risen      

I wish that there was some such word as ‘pishun’  

For ryhme sake for my verses must be dizen   

With dresses fine – as hooks with bait for fishing   

I wish all honest men were out of prison         

I wish M.P’s. would spin less yarn – nor doubt 

But burn false bills & cross bad taxes out

                                                                         

I wish young married dames were not so frisky      

Nor hide the ring to make believe they’re single     

I wish small beer was half as good as whiskey

& married dames with buggers would not mingle    

There’s some too cunning far & some too frisky      

& here I want a ryhme – so write down ‘jingle’

& there’s such putting in – in whores crim con 

Some mouths would eat forever & eat on

                                                                         

Childern are fond of sucking sugar candy         

& maids of sausages – larger the better          

Shopmen are fond of good sigars & brandy     

& I of blunt – & if you change the letter           

To C or K it would be quite as handy                

& throw the next away – but I’m your debtor  

For modesty – yet wishing nought between us       

I’d hawl close to a she as vulcan did to venus

                                                                         

I really cant tell what this poem will be            

About – nor yet what trade I am to follow       

I thought to buy old wigs – but that will kill me

With cold starvation – as they’re beaten hollow     

Long speeches in a famine will not fill me         

& madhouse traps still take me by the collar    

So old wig bargains now must be forgotten     

The oil that dressed them fine has made them rotten               

I wish old wigs were done with ere they’re mouldy

I wish – but heres the papers large & lusty     

With speeches that full fifty times they’ve told ye   

– Noble Lord John to sweet Miss Fanny Fusty  

Is wed – a lie good reader I ne’er sold ye        

– Prince Albert goes to Germany & must he     

Leave the queens snuff box where all fools are strumming      

From addled eggs no chickens can be coming

                                                                         

Whigs strum state fiddle strings untill they snap     

With cuckoo cuckold cuckoo year by year         

The razor plays it on the barbers strap            

– The sissars grinder thinks it rather quere     

That labour wont afford him ‘one wee drap’     

Of ale or gin or half & half or beer                    

– I wish prince Albert & the noble dastards     

Who wed the wives – would get the noble bastards

                                                                         

I wish prince Albert on his german journey      

I wish the Whigs were out of office &               

Pickled in law books of some good atorney      

For ways & speeches few can understand       

They’ll bless ye when in power – in prison scorn ye

& make a man rent his own house & land –     

I wish prince Alberts queen was undefiled       

– & every man could get his wife with child

                                                                         

I wish the devil luck with all my heart               

As I would any other honest body                   

His bad name passes bye me like a f—t           

Stinking of brimstone – then like whisky toddy

We swallow sin which seems to warm the heart     

– There’s no imputing any sin to God – he       

Fills hell with work – & is’n’t it a hard case       

To leave old whigs & give to hell the carcass

                                                                         

Me–b—ne may throw his wig to little Vicky       

& so resign his humbug & his power                

& she with the young princess mount the dickey    

On ass milk diet for her german tour                

Asses like ministers are rather tricky                

I & the country proves it every hour                 

W–ll—gt–n & M–lb—n in their station               

Coblers to queens – are phisic to the nation           

These batch of toadstools on this rotten tree  

Shall be the cabinet of any queen                    

Though not such coblers as her servants be    

They’re of Gods making – that is plainly seen  

Nor red nor green nor orange – they are free  

To thrive & flourish as the Whigs have been    

But come tomorrow – like the Whigs forgotten

You’ll find them withered stinking dead & rotten

                                                                         

Death is an awfull thing it is by God                 

I’ve said so often & I think so now                    

Tis rather droll to see an old wig nod               

Then doze & die the devil don’t know how       

Odd things are wearisome & this is odd –        

Tis better work then kicking up a row              

I’m weary of old Whigs & old whigs heirs         

& long been sick of teazing God with prayers

                                                                         

I’ve never seen the cow turn to a bull              

I’ve never seen the horse become an ass       

I’ve never seen an old brawn cloathed in whool –  

But I have seen full many a bonny lass            

& wish I had one now beneath the cool           

Of these high elms – Muse tell me where I was      

O – talk of turning I’ve seen Whig & Tory         

Turn imps of hell – & all for Englands glory

                                                                         

I love good fellowship & wit & punning            

I love ‘true love’ & God my taste defend          

I hate most damnably all sorts of cunning –     

I love the Moor & Marsh & Ponders End –        

I do not like the song of ‘cease your funning’   

I love a modest wife & trusty friend                 

– Bricklayers want lime as I want rhyme for fillups  
– So here’s a health to sweet Eliza Phillips

LP 89 amongst other places

From 'January'

At last! We return from 10 weeks of travelling... USA... New Zealand and South Africa. But it's great to be back, even to an English January. We resume our perambulations through John Clare's work with an excerpt from 'January'.

"... unperceived, through key-holes creep,
When all around have sunk to sleep,
To feast on what the cotter leaves,--
Mice are not reckoned greater thieves.
They take away, as well as eat,
And still the housewife's eye they cheat,
In spite of all the folks that swarm
In cottage small and larger farm;
They through each key-hole pop and pop,
Like wasps into a grocer's shop,
With all the things that they can win
From chance to put their plunder in;--
As shells of walnuts, split in two
By crows, who with the kernels flew;
Or acorn-cups, by stock-doves plucked,
Or egg-shells by a cuckoo sucked;
With broad leaves of the sycamore
They clothe their stolen dainties oer:
And when in cellar they regale,
Bring hazel-nuts to hold their ale;
With bung-holes bored by squirrels well,
To get the kernel from the shell;
Or maggots a way out to win,
When all is gone that grew within;
And be the key-holes eer so high,
Rush poles a ladder's help supply.
Where soft the climbers fearless tread,
On spindles made of spiders' thread.
And foul, or fair, or dark the night,
Their wild-fire lamps are burning bright:
For which full many a daring crime
Is acted in the summer-time..." 

a hiatus...

Sorry that there will be a bit of a hiatus during my absence in 'foreign parts' for the next 10 weeks. I will try to post on occasion, but without regular access to a computer this might prove difficult.

Roger R.

Autumn

The thistledown's flying, though the winds are all still,
On the green grass now lying, now mounting the hill,
The spring from the fountain now boils like a pot;
Through stones past the counting it bubbles red-hot.

The ground parched and cracked is like overbaked bread,
The greensward all wracked is, bents dried up and dead.
The fallow fields glitter like water indeed,
And gossamers twitter, flung from weed unto weed.

Hill-tops like hot iron glitter bright in the sun,
And the rivers we're eying burn to gold as they run;
Burning hot is the ground, liquid gold is the air;
Whoever looks round sees Eternity there.
 

Life, Death, and Eternity

A shadow moving by one's side,
That would a substance seem;
That is, yet is not - though descried -
Like skies beneath the stream;
A tree that's ever in the bloom,
Whose fruit is never rife;
A wish for joys that never come,
Such are the hope of Life.

A dark, inevitable night,
A blank that will remain;
A waiting for the morning light,
Where waiting is in vain;
A gulph, where pathway never led
To show the depth beneath;
A thing we know not, yet we dread,
That dreaded thing is Death.

The vaulted void of purple sky
That everywhere extends,
That stretches from the dazzled eye,
In space that never ends;
A morning whose uprisen sun
No setting e'er shall see;
A day that comes without a noon,
Such is Eternity.
 

Impromptu

"Where art thou wandering, little child?"
I said to one I met to-day.--
She pushed her bonnet up and smiled,
"I'm going upon the green to play:
Folks tell me that the May's in flower,
That cowslip-peeps are fit to pull,
And I've got leave to spend an hour
To get this little basket full."

--And thou'st got leave to spend an hour!
My heart repeated.--She was gone;
--And thou hast heard the thorn's in flower,
And childhood's bliss is urging on:
Ah, happy child! thou mak'st me sigh,
This once as happy heart of mine,
Would nature with the boon comply,
How gladly would I change for thine.

The Fear of Flowers

The nodding oxeye bends before the wind,
The woodbine quakes lest boys their flowers should find,
And prickly dogrose spite of its array
Can't dare the blossom-seeking hand away,
While thistles wear their heavy knobs of bloom
Proud as a warhorse wears its haughty plume,
And by the roadside danger's self defy;
On commons where pined sheep and oxen lie
In ruddy pomp and ever thronging mood
It stands and spreads like danger in a wood,
And in the village street where meanest weeds
Can't stand untouched to fill their husks with seeds,
The haughty thistle oer all danger towers,
In every place the very wasp of flowers.

The Shepherd's Calendar

September

Old goody seeks her milking cloak
And hastens out to milk the cow
And fill the troughs to feed the sow
Or seeking old hens laid astray
Or from young chickens drives away
The circling kite that round them flyes
Waiting the chance to seize the prize
Hogs trye thro gates the street to gain
And steal into the fields of grain
From nights dull prison comes the duck
Waddling eager thro the muck
Squeezing thro the orchard pales
Where mornings bounty rarely fails
Eager gobbling as they pass
Dew worms thro the padded grass
Where blushing apples round and red
Load down the boughs and pat the head
Of longing maid that hither goes
To hang on lines the drying cloaths
Who views them oft with tempted eye
And steals one as she passes bye
Where the holly oak so tall
Far oer tops the garden wall
That latest blooms for bees provide
Hived on stone benches close beside
The bees their teazing music hum
And threaten war to all that come
Save the old dame whose jealous care
Places a trapping bottle there
Filled with mock sweets in whose disguise
The honey loving hornet dies
(excerpt) 

Little Trotty Wagtail

Little trotty wagtail he went in the rain,
And tittering, tottering sideways he neer got straight again,
He stooped to get a worm, and looked up to get a fly,
And then he flew away ere his feathers they were dry.

Little trotty wagtail, he waddled in the mud,
And left his little footmarks, trample where he would.
He waddled in the water-pudge, and waggle went his tail,
And chirrupt up his wings to dry upon the garden rail.

Little trotty wagtail, you nimble all about,
And in the dimpling water-pudge you waddle in and out;
Your home is nigh at hand, and in the warm pig-stye,
So, little Master Wagtail, I'll bid you a good-bye.

What is Life? (Final)

And what is Death? is still the cause unfound?
That dark, mysterious name of horrid sound?
A long and lingering sleep, the weary crave.
And Peace? where can its happiness abound?--
No where at all, save heaven, and the grave.

Then what is Life?--When stripped of its disguise,
A thing to be desired it cannot be;
Since every thing that meets our foolish eyes
Gives proof sufficient of its vanity.
Tis but a trial all must undergo;
To teach unthankful mortals how to prize
That happiness vain man's denied to know,
Until he's called to claim it in the skies.

What is Life? (2)

And thou, O Trouble? -- Nothing can suppose,
(And sure the power of wisdom only knows,)
What need requireth thee:
So free and liberal as thy bounty flows,
Some necessary cause must surely be;
But disappointments, pains, and every woe
Devoted wretches feel,
The universal plagues of life below,
Are mysteries still neath Fate's unbroken seal.

What is Life? (1)

And what is Life? -- An hour-glass on the run,
A mist retreating from the morning sun,
A busy, bustling, still repeated dream;
Its length? -- A minute's pause, a moment's thought;
And happiness? -- A bubble on the stream,
That in the act of seizing shrinks to nought.

What are vain Hopes? -- The puffing gale of morn,
That of its charms divests the dewy lawn,
And robs each floweret of its gem -- and dies;
A cobweb hiding disappointment's thorn,
Which stings more keenly through the thin disguise.

Summer Evening (Final)

The night-wind now, with sooty wings,
In the cotter's chimney sings;
Now, as stretching oer the bed,
Soft I raise my drowsy head,
Listening to the ushering charms,
That shake the elm tree's mossy arms:
Till sweet slumbers stronger creep,
Deeper darkness stealing round,
Then, as rocked, I sink to sleep,
Mid the wild wind's lulling sound.
 

Summer Evening (VI)

Dark and darker glooms the sky;
Sleep gins close the labourer's eye:
Dobson leaves his greensward seat,
Neighbours where they neighbours meet
Crops to praise, and work in hand,
And battles tell from foreign land.
While his pipe is puffing out,
Sue he's putting to the rout,
Gossiping, who takes delight
To shool her knitting out at night,
And back-bite neighbours bout the town--
Who's got new caps, and who a gown,
And many a thing, her evil eye
Can see they don't come honest by.
Chattering at a neighbour's house,
She hears call out her frowning spouse;
Prepared to start, she soodles home,
Her knitting twisting oer her thumb,
As, both to leave, afraid to stay,
She bawls her story all the way;
The tale so fraught with 'ticing charms,
Her apron folded oer her arms.
She leaves the unfinished tale, in pain,
To end as evening comes again:
And in the cottage gangs with dread,
To meet old Dobson's timely frown,
Who grumbling sits, prepared for bed,
While she stands chelping bout the town.
(tbc) 

Summer Evening (V)

Come, poor birds, from foes severe
Fearless come, you're welcome here;
My heart yearns at fate like yours,
A sparrow's life's as sweet as ours.
Hardy clowns! grudge not the wheat
Which hunger forces birds to eat:
Your blinded eyes, worst foes to you,
Can't see the good which sparrows do.
Did not poor birds with watching rounds
Pick up the insects from your grounds,
Did they not tend your rising grain,
You then might sow to reap in vain.
Thus Providence, right understood,
Whose end and aim is doing good,
Sends nothing here without its use;
Though ignorance loads it with abuse,
And fools despise the blessing sent,
And mock the Giver's good intent.--
O God, let me what's good pursue,
Let me the same to others do
As I'd have others do to me,
And learn at least humanity.
(tbc) 

Summer Evening (IV)

To loose the door its fastening pin,
And let him with his corn begin.
Round the yard, a thousand ways,
Beasts in expectation gaze,
Catching at the loads of hay
Passing fodderers tug away.
Hogs with grumbling, deafening noise,
Bother round the server boys;
And, far and near, the motley group
Anxious claim their suppering-up.

From the rest, a blest release,
Gabbling home, the quarreling geese
Seek their warm straw-littered shed,
And, waddling, prate away to bed.
Nighted by unseen delay,
Poking hens, that lose their way,
On the hovel's rafters rise,
Slumbering there, the fox's prize.
Now the cat has ta'en her seat,
With her tail curled round her feet;
Patiently she sits to watch
Sparrows fighting on the thatch.
Now Doll brings the expected pails,
And dogs begin to wag their tails;
With strokes and pats they're welcomed in,
And they with looking wants begin;
Slove in the milk-pail brimming o'er,
She pops their dish behind the door.
Prone to mischief boys are met,
Neath the eaves the ladder's set,
Sly they climb in softest tread,
To catch the sparrow on his bed;
Massacred, O cruel pride!
Dashed against the ladder's side.
Curst barbarians! pass me by;
Come not, Turks, my cottage nigh;
Sure my sparrows are my own,
Let ye then my birds alone.
(tbc) 

Summer Evening (III)

In tall grass, by fountain head,
Weary then he drops to bed.
From the hay-cock's moistened heaps,
Startled frogs take vaunting leaps;
And along the shaven mead,
Jumping travellers, they proceed:
Quick the dewy grass divides,
Moistening sweet their speckled sides;
From the grass or flowret's cup,
Quick the dew-drop bounces up.
Now the blue fog creeps along,
And the bird's forgot his song:
Flowers now sleep within their hoods;
Daisies button into buds;
From soiling dew the butter-cup
Shuts his golden jewels up;
And the rose and woodbine they
Wait again the smiles of day.
Neath the willow's wavy boughs,
Dolly, singing, milks her cows;
While the brook, as bubbling by,
Joins in murmuring melody.
Dick and Dob, with jostling joll,
Homeward drag the rumbling roll;
Whilom Ralph, for Doll to wait,
Lolls him o'er the pasture gate.
Swains to fold their sheep begin;
Dogs loud barking drive them in.
Hedgers now along the road
Homeward bend beneath their load;
And from the long furrowed seams,
Ploughmen loose their weary teams:
Ball, with urging lashes wealed,
Still so slow to drive a-field,
Eager blundering from the plough,
Wants no whip to drive him now;
At the stable-door he stands,
Looking round for friendly hands
(tbc)
 

Summer Evening (II)

Bats flit by in hood and cowl;
Through the barn-hole pops the owl;
From the hedge, in drowsy hum,
Heedless buzzing beetles bum,
Haunting every bushy place,
Flopping in the labourer's face.
Now the snail hath made its ring;
And the moth with snowy wing
Circles round in winding whirls,
Through sweet evening's sprinkled pearls,
On each nodding rush besprent;
Dancing on from bent to bent;
Now to downy grasses clung,
Resting for a while he's hung;
Then, to ferry oer the stream,
Vanishing as flies a dream;
Playful still his hours to keep,
Till his time has come to sleep;
(tbc)