 | The Poems of John Clare |  |
SUMMER
The woodman's axe renews its hollow stroke,And barkmen's noises in the woods awake,
Ripping the stained bark from the fallen oak,
Where crumpled fox-fern and the branching brake
Fade 'neath their crushing feet. The timid hare
Starts from its mossy root or sedgy seat,
And listening foxes leave their startled lair
And to some blackthorn's spinney make retreat.
Haymakers with their shouldered rakes sojourn
To hedgy closes, and amid the wheat
The schoolboy runs, while pleasures thickly burn
Around his heart, to crop corn-bottle flowers,
Scaring the partridge from its quiet bourn,
That hides for shelter from the summer heat.
| The Poems of John Clare | |