 | The Poems of John Clare |  |
DYKE SIDE
The frog croaks loud, and maidens dare not passBut fear the noisome toad and shun the grass;
And on the sunny banks they dare not go
Where hissing snakes run to the flood below.
The nuthatch noises loud in wood and wild,
Like women turning skreeking to a child.
The schoolboy hears and brushes through the trees
And runs about till drabbled to the knees.
The old hawk winnows round the old crow's nest;
The schoolboy hears and wonder fills his breast.
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And wonders what the red-blotched eggs can be:
The green woodpecker bounces from the view
And hollos, as he buzzes by, ‘kew kew.’
| The Poems of John Clare | |