The Shepherds Calendar – July (John Clare Poems)
Daughter of pastoral smells and sightsAnd sultry days and dewy nightsJuly resumes her yearly placeWi her milking maiden faceRuddy and ...
John Clare Poems (174 Poems)
The Shepherds Calendar – May (John Clare Poems)
Come queen of months in companyWi all thy merry minstrelsyThe restless cuckoo absent longAnd twittering swallows chimney songAnd hedge row ...
The Cross Roads; Or, The Haymaker’s Story (John Clare Poems)
Stopt by the storm, that long in sullen blackFrom the south-west stained its encroaching track,Haymakers, hustling from the rain to ...
The Shepherds Calendar – March (John Clare Poems)
March month of 'many weathers' wildly comesIn hail and snow and rain and threatning humsAnd floods: while often at his ...
The Shepherd’s Calendar – August (John Clare Poems)
Harvest approaches with its bustling dayThe wheat tans brown and barley bleaches greyIn yellow garb the oat land intervenesAnd tawney ...
Summer Images (John Clare Poems)
Now swarthy Summer, by rude health embrowned, Precedence takes of rosy fingered Spring; And laughing Joy, with wild flowers prank'd, and crown'd, A ...
The Flitting (John Clare Poems)
I've left my own old home of homes, Green fields and every pleasant place;The summer like a stranger comes, I pause and ...
The Cellar Door (John Clare Poems)
By the old tavern door on the causey there layA hogshead of stingo just rolled from a dray,And there stood ...
The Shepherds Calendar – January- Winters Day (John Clare Poems)
Withering and keen the winter comesWhile comfort flyes to close shut roomsAnd sees the snow in feathers passWinnowing by the ...
The Shepherd’s Calendar – June (John Clare Poems)
Now summer is in flower and natures humIs never silent round her sultry bloomInsects as small as dust are never ...
Rural Morning (John Clare Poems)
Soon as the twilight through the distant mistIn silver hemmings skirts the purple east,Ere yet the sun unveils his smiles ...
The Shepherd’s Calendar – September (John Clare Poems)
Harvest awakes the morning stillAnd toils rude groups the valleys fillDeserted is each cottage hearthTo all life save the crickets ...
The Shepherds Calendar – April (John Clare Poems)
The infant april joins the springAnd views its watery skyeAs youngling linnet trys its wingAnd fears at first to flyeWith ...
The Shepherds Calendar – February – A Thaw (John Clare Poems)
The snow is gone from cottage topsThe thatch moss glows in brighter greenAnd eves in quick succession dropsWhere grinning ides ...
From “January” (John Clare Poems)
Supper removed, the mother sits,And tells her tales by starts and fits.Not willing to lose time or toil,She knits or ...
The Shepherds Calendar – July (2nd version) (John Clare Poems)
July the month of summers primeAgain resumes her busy timeScythes tinkle in each grassy dellWhere solitude was wont to dwellAnd ...
The Vanities Of Life (John Clare Poems)
Vanity of vanities, all is vanity.--_Solomon_What are life's joys and gains? What pleasures crowd its ways,That man should take such pains To ...
The Shepherds Calendar – December-Christmass (John Clare Poems)
Christmass is come and every hearthMakes room to give him welcome nowEen want will dry its tears in mirthAnd crown ...
The Maid Of Ocram, Or, Lord Gregory (John Clare Poems)
Gay was the Maid of OcramAs lady eer might beEre she did venture past a maidTo love Lord Gregory.Fair was ...
The Shepherd’s Calendar – October (John Clare Poems)
Nature now spreads around in dreary hueA pall to cover all that summer knewYet in the poets solitary waySome pleasing ...
The Cottager (John Clare Poems)
True as the church clock hand the hour pursuesHe plods about his toils and reads the news,And at the blacksmith's ...
The Shepherds Calendar – November (John Clare Poems)
The landscape sleeps in mist from morn till noon;And, if the sun looks through, 'tis with a faceBeamless and pale ...
The Fens (John Clare Poems)
Wandering by the river's edge,I love to rustle through the sedgeAnd through the woods of reed to tearAlmost as high ...
Decay (John Clare Poems)
O Poesy is on the wane, For Fancy's visions all unfitting;I hardly know her face again, Nature herself seems on the flitting.The ...
Farewell And Defiance To Love (John Clare Poems)
Love and thy vain employs, awayFrom this too oft deluded breast!No longer will I court thy stay,To be my bosom's ...
To John Milton (John Clare Poems)
_"From his honoured friend, William Davenant"_Poet of mighty power, I fainWould court the muse that honoured thee,And, like Elisha's spirit, ...
Sport In The Meadows (John Clare Poems)
Maytime is to the meadows coming in,And cowslip peeps have gotten eer so big,And water blobs and all their golden ...
Spear Thistle (John Clare Poems)
Where the broad sheepwalk bare and brown scant grass pining after showers,And winds go fanning up and down The little strawy ...
From “The Parish: A Satire” (John Clare Poems)
IIn politics and politicians' liesThe modern farmer waxes wondrous wise;Opinionates with wisdom all compact,And een could tell a nation how ...
Distant Hills (John Clare Poems)
What is there in those distant hills My fancy longs to see,That many a mood of joy instils? Say what can fancy ...