 | The Poems of John Clare |  |
THE SCHOOLBOY
With slate and bag at back and full of books,The merry schoolboy saunters on and looks
Fresh as the morn that meets him in the face;
And often stops to play in many a place,
To bawl at taw and hallo ‘knuckle down’
And hunt birds' nestes when he leaves the town.
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That suck birds' eggs and cheat him all the way,
And often sets his basket down and runs
To pelt the birds that nestle in the sun,
And often keeps from school with vain excuse
And then gets pence to buy him Spanish juice;
And when his sum is hard he lounges on
And pines for freedom till the day is gone.
| The Poems of John Clare | |