Their passing bell

Their lives were nothing but a sunny shower
Melting on flowers as tears melt from the eye
Their deaths were dew-drops on heavens amaranthine bower
Was tolled on flowers as Summer gales went by
They bowed & trembled yet they heaved no sigh
& the sun smiled to show the end was well
Infants have nought to weep for ere they die
All prayers are needless beads they need not tell
White flowers their mourners are Nature their passing bell

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Death and Eternity

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.

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Autumn shuts the scene

I think of thee at dewy morn 
& at the sunny noon 
& walks with thee—now left forlorn 
Beneath the silent moon 
I think of thee I think of all 
How blest we both have been— 
The sun looks pale upon the wall 
& autumn shuts the scene

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Gold tinted west

Come beautiful maiden while autumn delays
& the sunsets so sweet in the gold tinted west
While the fading beach tree sets the woods in a blaze
& the lark sings his song ere he sinks into rest

In Autumns gone by how fondly I press't thee
& loved thee sincerely & so I do now
As I wandered along with thee ever near me
While the leaves they were fading on every bough

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Fond desire

Now melancholly autumn comes anew
With showery clouds & fields of wheat tanned brown
Along the meadow banks I peace pursue
& see the wild flowers gleaming up & down
Like sun & light—the ragworts golden crown
Mirrors like sunshine when sunbeams retire
& silver yarrow—theres the little town
& oer the meadows gleams that slender spire
Reminding me of one—& waking fond desire

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I saw a Bonny maid

From bank to bank the water roars - Like thunder in a storm
A Sea in sight of both the shores - Creating no alarm
The water birds above the flood - Fly o'er the foam and spray
And nature wears a gloomy hood - On this October day
And there I saw a bonny maid - That proved my hearts delight
All day she was a Goddess made - An angel fair at night
We loved and in each others power felt - Nothing to condemn
I was the leaf and she the flower - And both grew on one stem
I loved her lip her cheek her eye - She cheered my midnight gloom
A bonny rose neath Gods own sky - In one perrenial bloom
She lives mid pastures evergreen - And meadows ever fair
Each winter spring and summer scene - The sweetest woman there

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Thy truth

I love thee nature in my inmost heart
Go where I will thy truth seems from above
Go where I will thy landscape forms a part
Of heaven—e'en these fens where wood nor grove
Are seen—their very nakedness I love
For one dwells nigh that secret hopes prefer
Above the race of women—like the dove
I mourn her abscence—fate that would deter
My hate for all things—strengthens love for her

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Like 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

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The evil air

The sleepy birds scared from their mossy nest

Beat through the evil air in vain for rest
& many a one the withering shades among
Wakened to perish oer its brooded young
The cattle startled with the sudden fright
Sickend from food & maddend into flight
& steed & beast in plunging speed pursued
The desperate struggle of the multitude
The faithful dogs yet knew their owners face
& cringing followd with a fearful pace
Joining the piteous yell with panting breath
While blasting lightnings followd fast with death
Then as Destruction stopt the vain retreat
They droppd & dying lickd their masters feet

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A ruin of the past

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

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No words dare tell

Along the road were coupld maid & swain
& dick from dolly now for gifts did sue
Hed gen her ribbons & he deemd again
Some kind return as nothing but his due
& he told things as ploughmen rarely knew
Bout breaking hearts & pains—a mighty spell
Her sunday clo'hs might damage wi the dew
She quite forgot them while he talkd so well
She gave the contest up at last to what no words dare tell

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Life?

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

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Autumn

Autumn comes laden with her ripened load
Of fruitage & so scatters them abroad
That each fern-smothered heath & mole-hill waste
Are black with bramble berries where in haste
The chubby urchins from the village hie
To feast them there stained with the purple dye
While painted woods around my rambles be
In draperies worthy of eternity
Yet will the leaves soon patter on the ground
& deaths deaf voice awake at every sound
One drops then others & the last that fell
Rings for those left behind their passing bell
Thus memory every where her tidings brings
How sad death robs us of lifes dearest things

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The lane path

O simple nature how I do delight

To pause upon thy trifles foolish things

So some woud call em on the summer night

Tracing the lane path where the dog rose hings

Wi dew drops seathd while chickering cricket sings

My eye cant help but glance upon its leaves

Where loves warm beauty steals her sweetest blush

When sweet the while the even silence heaves

Her pausing breath just trembling thro the bush

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September 1824

Took a walk in the fields: saw an old wood stile taken away from a familiar spot which it had occupied all my life. The posts were overgrown with ivy, and it seemed akin to nature and the spot where it stood, as though it had taken it on lease for an undisturbed existence. It hurt me to see it was gone, for my affections claim a friendship with such things; but nothing is lasting in this world.

Last year Langley Bush was destroyed -- an old white-thorn that had stood for more than a century, full of fame. The gipsies, shepherds, and herdsmen all had their tales of its history, and it will be long ere its memory is forgotten.

An excerpt from ‘Remembrances’

Summer's pleasures they are gone like to visions every one,
And the cloudy days of autumn and of winter cometh on.
I tried to call them back, but unbidden they are gone
Far away from heart and eye and forever far away.
Dear heart, and 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 and play
On its bank at “clink and bandy,” “chock” and “taw” and “ducking stone,”
Where silence sitteth now on the wild heath as her own
Like a ruin of the past all alone

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Of fame

I would not wish the burning blaze
     Of fame around a restless world
The thunder & the storm of praise
     In crowded tumults heard & hurled
I would not be a flower to stand
     The stare of every passer-bye
But in some nook of fairyland,
     Seen in the praise of beautys eye

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Greensward pathways

The Vicars greensward pathways once his pride

His woodbine bowers that used his doors to hide
& he himself full often in his chair
Smoaking his pipe & conning sermons there
The yard & garden roods his only farms
& all his stock the hive bees yearly swarms
Are swept away—their produce & their pride
Were doomed to perish when the owner dyd
Fresh faces came with little taste or care
& joyd to ruin what was his to rear
His garden plants & blossoms all are fled
& docks & nettles blossom in their stead

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Earth’s decay?

Man, Earth's poor shadow! talks of Earth's decay:
But hath it nothing of eternal kin?
No majesty that shall not pass away?
No soul of greatness springing up within?
Thought marks without hoar shadows of sublime,
Pictures of power, which if not doomed to win
Eternity, stand laughing at old Time
For ages: in the grand ancestral line
Of things eternal, mounting to divine,
I read Magnificence where ages pay
Worship like conquered foes to the Apennine,
Because they could not conquer. here sits Day
Too high for Night to come at--mountains shine,
Outpeering Time, too lofty for decay.

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Foot pad turning

The arching groves & walks so dark 
All appear in mem'rys eye 
With deep regret I view'd the spire 
Which told the busy vil so nigh 
For lonley shades are my desire 
Far from the reach of human eye 
The foot pad turning to the town 
No longer provd alone to me 
Loud noisy murmurs filld the air 
& spoild my deep sollemnity 
The passing hours jog'd on apace 
& in their progress seem'd to say 
‘Haste and gain that destind place’

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Sauntering

I cant contain myself in summers prime 

Tuneless I hum my wonder songs into rhyme 

Mere scraps of what I think or feel or see 

While sauntering narrow lanes – they are to me 

A heritage of happiness & yields 

Peace & calm joy from the refreshing fields

(A Clare ‘unpublished fragment’)

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