The later poems of John Clare :: :: University of Virginia Library

The later poems of John Clare

1837-1864 ... General editor Eric Robinson: Edited by Eric Robinson and David Powell: Associate editor Margaret Grainger

Clare, John (1793-1864)

Volume I

Poems written at High Beach, Epping, 1837–1841, and at Northborough, 1841

NORTHAMPTON MANUSCRIPT 27

[Beautiful woman, visions dwell]

[When with our little ones we spent]

[You promised me, a year ago]

[Sweeter than roses was the face]

[Tis autumn now & harvests reign]

[I long to forget them—the love of my life—]

ENGLISH JOURNAL

TO THE NIGHTINGALE

[MAID of Walkherd, meet again]

SIGHING FOR RETIREMENT

THE FOREST MAID

ON THE NEGLECT OF TRUE MERIT

THE SEQUEL TO JOHN BARLEYCORN

A WALK IN THE FOREST

TO WORDSWORTH

THE WATER LILIES

THE FRIGHTENED PLOUGHMAN

A WALK ON HIGH BEACH, LOUGHTON

LONDON VERSUS EPPING FOREST

GREATNESS OF MIND

THE GIPSY CAMP

THE TRUE SPIRITUAL WORSHIP

NORTHAMPTON MANUSCRIPT 8

[Nigh Leopards hill stand All*ns hells]

[What happy thoughts the summer yields]

[—Truth must be truth & will where e'er we go]

BALLAD—FRAGMENT

CHILD HAROLD

DON JUAN A POEM

BODLEIAN MANUSCRIPT DC 64 AND PETERBOROUGH MANUSCRIPT A 62

[Tis martinmass from rig to rig]

[So let us all be jolly]

[My heart my dear Mary from thee cannot part]

[His face is like a dragon]

BIBLICAL PARAPHRASES

ISRAEL PASSING OVER THE RED SEA

[In Jacob he hath not seen evil or guile]

BALAAMS PARABLE SECOND PART

SONG OF DEBORAH

DAVIDS LAMENT &c

DAVIDS PRAYER

SOLOMONS PRAYER &c &c

JOB—38th CHAP: 1st PART

[Lord hear my prayer when trouble glooms]

[He harmonized darkness to night & repose]

ISAIAH CHAP 47

LAMENTATIONS OF JEREMIAH CHAP. 3

PRAYER OF HABACUK

THE LAST JUDGMENT

[I saw the lamb who opened the first seal]

THE NEW JERUSALEM

THE RIVER OF THE WATER OF LIFE

Poems written in Northampton Asylum, 1842–1864

NORTHAMPTON MANUSCRIPT 19

[& in the maple bush there hides the style]

SONG

[Land of perpetual summer Italy]

SANG

[Infants are but cradles for the grave]

[There is a chasm in the heart of man]

SONG

TEMPLE OF MINERVA

[Now evenings rosey streaks—a ribbond sky]

[‘These two had been friends in Youth]

[The winter time is over love]

SONG

SPRING

[The present is the funeral of the past]

[Beautifull poetry I bow to thee]

A FAVOURITE PLACE

SONG LAST DAY

[The red bagged bee on never weary wing]

[When reason & religion goes a benting]

[Summer is on the earth & in the sky]

[Bluebells how beautifull & bright they look]

SONG

[The sinking sun sheds through the window glass]

SONG

[Tall grows the nettle by the hedgeway side]

[The thunder mutters louder & more loud]

SONG

[O Woman lovely woman how beguiling]

SONG

[Poets & Poesy are aspirations]

SONG

[Look through the naked bramble & black thorn]

[Here is the scenes the rural poet made]

THE AWTHORN

SONG

[I love the little pond to mark at spring]

SPRING

[The wind blows happily on every thing]

[Sorrow is felt not seen—the grief of verse]

KATHARINE AIRLIE

[False time what is it but a rogues account]

THE NORTH STAR

[All nature has a feeling wood fields brooks]

TWILIGHT

[Old times forgetfull memories of the past]

[Where are the citys Sodom & Gomorrah]

SANG

[& what is Love the sweetest of all pains]

NELLY GILES

SONG

SONG—WHITE THORN TREE

MARY GREEN

SONG

[O for one real imaginary blessing]

SONG

[God looks on nature with a glorious eye]

MARCH VIOLET

SONG—MOLLY MAGEE

WRECK OF THE EMELIE

[The healthfull mind that muses & inhales]

SONG

PETERBOROUGH MANUSCRIPT H23

[The sun is gone the shut of evening flowers]

[The morning air is rich to meet]

[Hw glrs s th smmr n ts prm]

[Where mossey oaks & hazel bushes gr[ow]]

NORTHAMPTON MANUSCRIPTS 410, 411, 413, AND 414

[No more Blustery winter rages—]

[Could I retrace the pleasures of my years]

VALENTINE

LOVE OF SOLITUDE

[These paintings, why they mock as if they spoke]

LAMENT TO FRIENDSHIP

[By the spring that shines so clear]

SONG

[The chelping Sparrows little pilfering thieve[s]]

[My Phebe she is handsome wi back as white as milk]

[Dry stony banks are wreathed with Bindweed Flowers]

[Good & substantial painter merits raise]

NORTHAMPTON MANUSCRIPT 9

SONG

MR SONG BLLUDS

[Is nothing less then naught—nothing is nought]

[Spring comes & it is may—white as are sheets]

NORTHAMPTON MANUSCRIPT 10

[Some promises are broke as soon as made]

SONG

[In cant & mystery there lurks a wrong]

SONG

[How beautiful is Sunset eye & breast]

MISCELLANEOUS

SONG

SONG On Occasion of the Queen's Visit to Northampton

SONG

[& morning woke upon her healthy cheek]

[Justice is slow, but sure as Moses' rod]

[Hnr thng dprtd nt shds]

[The chaffinch on the hedge row sings]

SONG

[Oh! who can tell the sweets of May-day morn]

TO A FRIEND

KNIGHT TRANSCRIPTS 1 VOLUME ONE

SONG ‘Thou'rt mine Love’

SONG O wert thou in the storm

THE MAID OF JERUSALEM

OUT OF DOOR PLEASURES

SONG To his Wife

SONG

AN INVITE TO ETERNITY

SONNET The Nightingale

A LAMENT FOR JERUSALEM

LINES Written on a very boisterous day in May, 1844

BALLAD

THE HOUR OF PRAYER

MORNING

A GLOOMY DAY IN SUMMER

SPRING

DEATH'S MEMORIES

EVENING

[Left in the world alone]

[The bee loves a blossom and I love a woman]

SOME DAYS BEFORE THE SPRING

TO MARY ANN B****

SPRING VIOLETS

[Come hither ye who thirst]

MY EARLY HOME WAS THIS

SONG Mary Appleby

[How beautiful ye breathe ye passing gales]

HESPERUS

[A rosey bud I would not kill]

SONG

TO A LARK SINGING IN WINTER

SONG

THE AIK

[I lay me down with thoughts of thee]

THE ROUND OAK

THE MAID IN THE SPRING

HOPE & JOY

[My spirit lives in silent sighs]

AN ACROSTIC On the Revd Wm Todman Yardley Hastings

SONG

THE FALSE ONE

SONG

[Adelaide, Adelaide why art thou sleeping]

[I've been gathering]

[O'er Scotland's vales and mountains high]

LARKS AND SPRING

EARLY MORNING

[There is a charm in nature felt and seen]

SONG

THE AUTUMN WIND

LOVE OF LIBERTY

[Flowers shall hang upon the pawls]

[I love thee nature with a boundless love]

SPRING

MARY

[Mary on the footpath ramble]

THE FOREST FLOWER

[How hot the sun rushes]

[The leaves of Autumn drop by two's and three's]

SONG

[There is a thought in every human breast]

SONG

[Thy spirit visits me like dew]

SONG The maid of the Desert

[In April all the lanes and woods are full of]

SONG Milking o' the Kye

RECOLECTIONS OF HOME

SONG The old house at Home

SONG The maid in the morning

A LAMENT I cannot if I would be gay

THE APRIL WIND AND MILK-MAID

‘THE WILLOW SHADED LANE’

[Thou maiden Flower o' Scotish land]

MISFORTUNE

CONTENTMENT

[Will ye gang wi' me to Scotland dear]

SPRING WIND

[I sigh with the wind like a storm stricken tree]

[Her eyes are bright as the stars by night]

[My love is fair and bonny]

[Honey words make charms of blisses]

[There is a charm in Solitude that cheers]

[O the world keeps running round]

[There's music in the songs of birds]

THE SHEPHERD BOY

[Swift goes the sooty swallow o'er the heath]

[The spring comes cheery o'er the Scottish mountains]

MARGARET

[The rauk o' the hills & the mist o' the mountains]

THE PANSEY

SONG

[When Jenny was here I was seldom alone]

[The Spring comes clad in green]

[Take back the rose nor let it wither]

GREEN HILLS OF NATURE

JEWISH MAIDS

A WISH

SONG O how can I be blythe and free

[O could I be as I have been]

[Farewell to love and all I see]

MARY

SLEEP ON DEAR BABY

SONG

SONG To J*** — W***** —

SONG

[Some pretty face remembered in our youth]

II.

Volume II

KNIGHT TRANSCRIPTS VOLUME TWO

[The morning wakes dewy & sunny & light]

[In the seasons o' swallows that brings the bright sun]

[Come away come away to the wild wood]

SCOTLAND

HERE'S TO AULD SCOTLAND

COME! COME IN THE FIELDS

MARY BOYFIELD

SONG

BY CLARE—TO BE PLACED AT THE BACK OF HIS PORTRATE PRESENTED TO INSKIP BY MRS. PRICHARD

LITTLE TROTTY WAGTAIL

THE SWALLOW

THE FOREST MAID

BONNY LASSIE O

OH COME TO ME AT EVEN!

HOW BEAUTIFUL IT IS

MY SWEET LUCY GREY

MY OWN SWEET SALLY GEE

SWEET MARY O' THE PLOUGH

BANTRY BAY

[T'was in the midst of June]

MY LOVE IN DISHABILLE

AMONG THE GREEN BUSHES

PEGGY WAS A YOUNG THING

FAIR MARIA

HOW CALM IS THE EVENING

MY LOVE SHE IS A MODEST GIRL

THE ROSE IN FULL BEARING

MY LOVE SHE IS BONNY

FAREWELL TO THE CORNFIELD

BONNY MARY O

OH CARADORA

THERE'S NOTHING SO SWEET

MY LOVE SHE'S BONNY

FAREWELL

THE EVENING COMES

WHEN I MEET A BONNY LASSIE

I MET A PLEASANT MAIDEN

I MAYBE CANNA SING

BEAUTIFUL MARIA

'TIS NOW THE HIGHT O' SUMMER

HOW BEAUTIFUL THE MORNING

MANY DEAR THINGS

THE GARDENERS BONNY DAUGHTER

WILL YOU EVER LOVE ME DEAREST?

WHEN THE SHEEP ARE IN THE PEN

LOVELY ALICE GREY

THE EVENING IS FOR LOVE

I'LL GANG AND SEE JESSY AGAIN

[The winter winnowed chill And fast came down the snow]

HER LOVE IS ALL TO ME

MY BONNY JANE

THE MILKING O' THE KYE

I MET HER IN THE GLOAMING

COME NANNY DEAR NEAR ME

BONNY LASSIE O!

CAN I FORGET THOSE LARGE BLUE EYES

THE WINDS BLOW SOFTLY

THEE I LOVE BONNY LASSIE O

HOUSE OR WINDOW FLIES

[The upward look and ever anxious eye]

OH! BEAUTIFUL THE WIND COMES

THE LADYBIRD

OH! BONNY IS THE COUNTRY

A HEALTH TO ALL PRETTY GIRLS

GLORIA IN EXCELSIS

FRAGMENT

MARY THE MAID O' THE PLOUGH

SUMMERS IN ITS GLORY NOW

MY BONNY SUE

MY BONNY YOUNG ANNE MARIA

THE WALK LAST SABBATH DAY

I LOVED THE LASSES DEARLY

WHEN THE SLOE FLOWER'S IN BLOOM

THE BALM O CARE IS WOMAN

I DREAM'T OF ROBIN

THE DAISY BUTTON TIPP'D WI' DEW

WILL YE GANG A WEEDING DEAR

'TWAS IN A SUMMER'S MORNING

OH ONCE I HAD A TRUE LOVE

AGAIN I'LL TAKE MY INK AND PEN

SHE'S LOVELY IN HER PERSON

OH PHOEBE LOVELY PHOEBE

PRIMROSES IN THE WOOD APPEAR

VIOLETS AND PRIMROSES

THE SUN IS SETTING

THE DAYS OF APRIL

THE RETURN OF SPRING

MY LOVE SHE WAS A GIPSEY O

THE CORN CRAIKS RISPY SONG

SWEET SOPHY'S EYES ARE CHRYSTALS CLEAR

THE WIND THAT SHAKES THE RUSHES

OH SWEET IS THE SOUND

ANGEL SHE SEEM'D AND WOMAN TOO

THE FLOWER OF OUR VALLEY

I'LL LOVE THEE NO MORE

TIS PLEASANT TO WALK

THERE IS A VOICE I LOVE TO HEAR

WHERE LOVE ARE YOU?

I CLASP MY LOVELY GIRL

BONNY JENNY O

AUTUMN

YOUNG BESSY BRIGHT AND FAIR

MAID O' THE WILDERNESS

COME SOFTLY MY DARLING

MARY BATEMAN

THE DARK DAYS OF AUTUMN

PEGGY'S THE LADY O' THE HALL

WINTER

THE SCOTCH AND IRISH GIRL

I LOVE THE BLUE VIOLET

OH THERE IS A VALLEY

THE NIGHT IS STILL

THE MILKMAID IS BONNY AND FAIR

THE MAIDEN CLAD WI' CLAY

THE PEARTREE LANE

THE SWEETEST WOMAN THERE

I LOVE HER JUST THE SAME AS EVER

THE PRIMROSE PEEPS

OH BONNY ANN WAS FAIR TO SEE

OH THE DAY IT WAS BLACK

JUST NOW I MET A MAIDEN

THE EVENING WAS LOVELY

AMELIA THOU MAID O' MY BOSOM

IT IS LOVE!

ADIEU TO GREEN MEADOWS

MY SWEET BONNY ANN

HELLEN BONNY HELLEN

REMEMBER THEE LOVE? YES!

'TWAS ON AN APRIL MORNING

THE SHARP WIND SHIVERS

ONE SUMMER SUNDAY MORNING

HOW BEAUTIFUL THE SUN WENT DOWN

THE CROW SAT ON THE WILLOW

OH COMELY IS THE ROSY BRERE

IN THE FIELD—

OH COME TO MY ARMS

IN GREEN GRASSY PLACES

IT WAS A PLEASANT EVENING

COY MAIDENS O' DRYSAIL

THE SPRING COMES AGAIN LOVE

THE PEASANT POET

AND MUST WE PART?

THEN SHALL WE MEET AGAIN

WE PASSED BY GREEN CLOSES

THEE AND THEE ONLY

MY LOVED ONE MY OWN

WHERE THE HAZELS HING LOVE

REMEMBER DEAR MARY

CAN YE LOVE MY DEAR LASSIE

MARY O THE WEST

I PULL'D A WILD ROSE FRA THE BRERE

BONNY MARY LET US GO

‘A WIMPERING BROOK’

‘THE LADY O THE WEST’

[By mud pools see a gnat striped nameless flye]

‘THE WIND SOTHERS SOFTLY’

‘I LOVE THE FLOWERS O SPRING’

‘BONNY DARK EYED SUSAN’

‘BONNY RACHEL HIVES’

‘I'VE GOT AN OLD CRUMMACHING COW’

‘OH BONNY JANE IS HANDSOME’

‘HOW SWEET SINGS THE THRUSH’

‘THE MILKING MAID’

‘THE BONNY GIPSEY’

‘SHE WAS A FAIR AND BONNY GIRL’

‘I LOVE THE MOSSY FOUNTAIN’

‘SWEET MARY OGILVIE’

LINES ON ‘COWPER’

‘BEAUTY SO DIVINE’

[Of thee I keep dreaming still thee]

[I've waited long lonely but hither she comes]

[She is a sweet and bonny thing]

[The Even comes & the Crow flies low]

[I wandered forth to view the streams]

[How cheerful along the gay mead]

[Say not when all your scanty stores afford]

[Know God is every where]

‘BIRD O THE WILDERNESS’

‘WILT THOU THINK O' ME?’

‘HER MAIDEN NAME IS ELEANOR’

‘SWEET LUCY O NORTHAMPTON’

‘THERE'S SOMETHING IN THE TIME’

‘COME THE BACK WAY DEAR’

‘THEY LOVE NOT ME BECAUSE I'M POOR’

[The heart of Midlothian is nearly my own]

[How beautiful the hazy morning seems!]

FRAGMENTARY

[‘Such is the Almighty Will’ so spake the honest brow]

[The sedges sighing by the meadows stream]

[I wish the king cups they would come again]

I'LL DREAM ABOUT THE DAYS TO COME

HE LOVED ME BEST O' ONY'—

SHE IS A WINSOME YOUNG THING

OH THE MAIDEN WAS COY

SHE'S CHASTE AND BEAUTIFULLY FAIR

SWEET IS THE WHISPER

THE SAILORS RETURN

THE MAIDS O' OULD IRELAND

RATHER TOO COOL

NO USE IN TRYING

BIRDS: WHY ARE YE SILENT?

THE YELLOWHAMMER

HIM WHO LOVES THEE BEST

PRIMROSES

MEET ME MY OWN PRETTY DOVE!

MEET ME IN THE GREEN GLEN

'TWAS WI' SADNESS O' HEART

ADIEU

PERPLEXITIES

THE MOSSY GREEN LANE

THE PITCHER WITHOUT EAR

DRESS DOES NOT MAKE THE MAN

IN BEAUTY THERE IS JOY

EARLY MORNING

SPRING

ACROSTIC

CAN YE LOVE LOWLAND LASSIE

WILD FLOWERS

OH WHITHER FAIR MAIDEN

A RAPHSODY

THE GREEN WOOD SIDE

THE RAWK O' THE AUTUMN

THE SONGS OF OUR LAND

I'LL GANG AND SEE PHEMIE

COME IN THE MORNING

OH WHAT SO SWEET AS LOVE

AN ANECDOTE OF LOVE

FARE THEE WELL

[Language has not the power to speak what love indites]

THE MAID I LOVE

ROSES

I WISH I WAS A LITTLE BIRD

DO YE LIKE THE HEATH LASSIE

MY BEAUTIFUL NANNY

COME HITHER ISABEL

WOMAN HAD WE NEVER MET

WRITTEN IN PRISON

SONNET

THE MAPLE TREE

MY AIN HEART LOVE IS THINE

THE SHEPHERDS DAUGHTER

GOOD E'ENIN TO YE LASSIE

SWEETLY COMES THE GRASSY SUMMER

MY YOUNG JOHN HIGHLAND MAN

COME SIT WI THE BIRDIES

ALONG THE WILLOW BANKS OF NEN

THE CHIMING BELLS

AN ANGEL IN THE SUMMER HOURS

HERES A HEALTH TO SCOTLAND

PRETTY KATE KEARNEY

MARY HELEN FROM THE HILL

THE DEPARTED

LOST AS STRANGERS AS WE PASS

JOHN THE CARPENTER

BESSY MACKAY

JOCKEY SAID TO JENNY

WHY DONT YE LOVE JANE

LOVE MAKES US BAITH AGREE

ID GAZE MY SOUL ON THEE

WE'LL WANDER THROUGH THE HEATHER

SHE LOO'S ME BEST O' ANY

HAD WE NE'ER LOVED

AMANG THE FLOWERS O' MAY

LUCY MY DEAR

FLY TO THE FOREST MY SUSAN

[The daisey is tipped wi the dew]

BORN UPON AN ANGELS BREAST

SONG OF LOVE TO JEANNIE

BONNY LASSIE DINNA LEAVE ME

FLOW ON WINDING RIVER

OH SUSAN MY DEAREST

WHAT BEAUTIES THE SUMMER DISCLOSES

I LOVE PALE PRIMROSES

[The yellow leaves are falling round the bushes every one]

WE STOOD BENEATH THE HAZEL SHADE

THERE'S LOVE IN HER SILENT LOOKS

THE SILVER MOON THAT LIGHTS THE WAY

GO NOT NIGH HER DWELLING

COME LOVELY MARY

COME HELEN MY RARE ONE

MIRTHFUL SUMMERS COME AT LAST

ABOVE THE BROOK THE MIDGE'S PLAY

BY YON BURNSIDE

THE WINDS FAN SO SWEET

BEAN BLOSSOMS

[The blossomed bean I love to see]

ROLL THEE IN MY TARTAN PLAIDIE

LASSIE SAY WILL YE GO

I AM WAE AND WEARY SISTER

I SPEAK IN LOW CALM BREATHING WHISPERS

I LIVE AND LOVE AS OTHERS DO

FRAGMENT

HOW CAN I FORGET

I'LL MEET THEE ON THE HEATHER

ENSLAVED IN BONDS

SONNET TO T. INSKIP STAFFORD

COME MARY ANN

A RAMBLE BY THE RIVER SIDE

MY OWN SWEET GIPSEY GIRL

II.

SONNET On a Lane in Spring

BIRDS NESTS

POEMS FROM BAKER'S GLOSSARY

[Where the deer with their shadows passed swifter than thought]

[How beautiful May and its morning comes in!]

Quotations from Baker's Glossary

10.

11.

12.

13.

14.

15.

16.

17.

18.

19.

20.

21.

22.

23.

24.

25.

26.

27.

28.

29.

30.

31.

32.

Collapse All | Expand All expand section

HOW CALM IS THE EVENING

How calm is the even down in the narrow lane
Where white thorn and woodbine and dog roses meet
How bright is the dew on the dog rose again
While the grey mist creeps over like the days winding sheet

O' beautiful the silver mist will hang on flowers
And pearl o'er the freckles O' the fox glove bell
How sweet is the stillness O' eventide hours
When in the green oak leaves Ring doves do dwell

To walk there with true love my sweet Mary Ann
And hide by the bonny wood side
In each others arms by the awthorn to stand
While the Moon in the heavens doth ride

While the clouds seem to sail and to race with the Moon
And Mary Ann gazes on high
Coal black is the cloud that envelopes it soon
Till the midnight O' darkness is bye

My dear Mary Ann wi' thy bonny brown hair
Thy red rosy cheeks and thy bosom so white
When the dew looks so sweet on the cobwebs there
I'll court her and kiss her the whole of the night