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

Where spring recloathes the yellow moor
Then dobson seeks his grassy seat
Built close beside the southern door
Where woodbines bloom so nice and sweet

There judie too will oft repair
To smoke a wiff while dobson sings
Thrice happy couple happy pair
Your hut might tempt the greatest kings!

Alltho my dim descriptive song
Nought but a misty view can bring
A misty view presented wrong
Yet Memory cannot cease to sing

For what I've heard and what I've seen
In this;—and other scenes as well
When leisure moments intervene
My artles mind delights to tell

Delights to tell the harmles ways
Which occupy their every hour
And show the picture that displays
The cot, the tree, and garden flower

More close than burs these pictures cling
Impresive to their gazers view
Raptures without a muse they bring
—So right or wrong I will pursue

O happy couple happy pair
Your curious cottage fills mine eye
With every thing convinient there
From wind and rain both snug and dry

Granduer (its stubble roof) excells
Adorned with the house-leek flower
Which holds (as superstion tells)
A Charm to quell the lightnings power

175

With its low windows diamond glass
In vain may polish'd crown compare
Nor can the Bowe's new mould surpass
The homley old inventions there

For when the sun emits a ray
It brings a clock as well as light
And both can tell the time of day
Exactly by the shadows height

The rooms more comfortable made
Than courts or pallaces can be
Tho all the ornament display'd
Was furnish'd from necessity

Save Ballads, songs, and Cutts, that hide
Both window-shutters, wall, and door,
Which tell of many-a-murder'd bride
And desperate Battles daubed oer

‘Keep within compass’ courts the eye
To read and learn a morral truth
With ‘Golden Maxims’ paste'd nigh
And ‘Pious counsils’ plan'd for youth

There too on poltry paper wrought
Disgrac'd with songs upon the screen
(Of some poor penny hawker bought)
King Charles's ‘Golden Rules’ are seen

These with hundreds more beside
In every hole and corner shine
Displaying forth in cottage pride
An Exebition simply fine

Oh happy scenes what joys abound
Not only which thy walls posess
For every foot of Dobsons ground
Claims the sweet name of Happiness!

176

The hedge that bounds the pastur'd plains
Was so beloved for its shade
That all the shepherds and the swains
Their hutts beneath its shelter made

And hinds:—but what I would pursue
Lengthens too much my simple ryhme
—The broad-old-oak now meets my view
Where dobson sits in summer-time

O for a poets pen to show
(When birds infest the rip'ning corn)
How dobson hopples too and fro
With brushing pole, or bell, or horn

And simple ways and trifling things
Which still his aged mind can please
That every day successive springs
As well from labour as from ease

Lo! when he toils the bending grain
Beats in his face her promis'd store
And when he rests this little plain
Reminds him of the crowded door

In fancys eye the rustling sheaves
Appear to treasuring ripness grown
And his glad heart more rapturous heaves
Because these treasures are his own!

How e'er in short:—this happy pair
So lonley in the valleys hid
Enjoys more pleasure free from care
Then e'er their Father Adam did!

Spring's sprouting blade and swelling bud
Summer's blown-flower and clefted-ground
And Autumns yellow fading wood
Brings joy in one continued round

177

Winter wrapt in her dismal forms
Cannot their happiness annoy
Cold days, black nights, and snowy storms
Inspire them with reflective joy

Old dob when sitting by the fire
Will often bid old judie ‘hark
‘I fear the wind is rising higher
‘And o the night is dismal dark’

‘Ah think’ he cries, (while judie smoaks)
‘In this most dismal wintry night
‘How many poor tir'd travelling folks
‘Now meets the storm in woeful plight!’

‘Perhaps now at this very hour
‘Some poor lost soul lays—down his head
‘Beneath a tree which turns no shower
‘And cannot find a better bed’

‘For cloth'd with snow instead of dew
‘No longer they a shelter yield
‘More worse I know 'twill winnow thro
‘Then standing in the open field’

‘O heavens now the wind gets higher
‘It grieves me;—yet I'm pleas'd to think
‘How we are blest with house and fire
‘A good warm bed, and meat, and drink,’

‘And if the lost:—(I hope as well)
‘Should ever find their homes again
That true old-saying then will tell
‘How sweet the pleasure after pain!’

‘Then will they sit like you and I
‘And tell how Darkness led astray.—
‘O God with thy all-seeing eye
‘Guide the lone wanderer on his way’

178

Thus Dobson often does reflect
When winters horrid tempests blow
For he not blinded by neglect
Can quickly feel anothers woe

Nor does his fond reflections dwell
On human self-like souls alone
To the dumb Animals as well
His feeling tendernes is shown

He knows how cold the winters night
Would be if he himself where there
He feels for dogs—and takes delight
In letting them his cottage share

There soon as darkness speads the eve
Tray takes his lodging near the door
While purring puss with granted leave
Prefers a Cushion to the floor

Sometimes judie knits and sews
While o'er the sutty hearth so snug
He's often busied with the news
Accompyni'd with bonny jug

O happy couple happy pair
Your little cottage fills mine eye
With longing wishes to be there
From wind and rain so snugly dry

But other scenes suround thy spot
Scenes in childhood vallued dear
Nor shall they ever be forgot
While life remains—or hope can cheer

179

Yon garden fancy still retains
Seated so warmly in the nook
Of noted green-ends flowry plains
Where closley flows the bubling brook

There shepherd-lads and milking-maids
Oft gather'd on its rushy brink
Or in the willows cooler shades
To rendevouze with sugar-drink

But custom did these sports dispel
Long ere old dob or judie where
Yet still posterity can tell
And still the tale they love to hear

While some tho lov'd by shepherds long
Dropt on a sudden like the wind
Or lik'er still (as will) my song
They dropt to leave no wreck behind

The awthorn hedge that fences round
Dob clips with all a gard'ners skill
And shows his master-ship profound
Instead of shears to use a bill

There 'tat'es and leeks and cabbage grow
With greens and lettuce's profuse
There too the sweet carnations glow
As well for pleasure as for use

And there with rural sweetness made
‘In natures simplest habit clad’
The elder bower displays its shade
Low bending o'er the grassy pad

Thrice lovly shades;—this elder bower
Old tasteful judie loves to see
And loves to view each new-blown flower
The bursting bud; or blossom'd tree

180

—Now I must leave your shades so dear
Tho dearer still as yet remain
O! would some Bloomfield wander near
To give such scenes an equal strain

Adieu then lovly spot adieu
Thou fountain of Felicity
Fancy shall never loose her view
Nor Silence cease to muse on thee