 | The Poems of John Clare |  |
326
EARLY IMAGES (II)
And mark the nimble swallow jerk and flingIts flight o'er new-mown meadows happily,
And cuckoo, quivering upon narrow wing,
Take sudden flitting from the neighbouring tree,
And heron, stalking solitary thing,
Mount up into high travel far away,
And that mild indecision hanging round
Skies holding bland communion with the ground
In gentlest pictures of the infant day,
Now picturing rain—while many a pleasing sound
Grows mellower, distant in the mealy grey
Of dewy pastures, and full many a sight
Looms sweeter in its indistinct array
Than when it glows in morning's stronger light.
| The Poems of John Clare | |