Section: «Poems»
Verse (ancient Greek ὁ στίχος — row, structure), a term in versification used in several meanings:
artistic speech organized by division into rhythmically commensurate segments; poetry in the narrow sense; in particular, it implies the properties of versification of a particular tradition ("antique verse", "Akhmatova's verse", etc.);
a line of poetic text organized according to a certain rhythmic pattern ("My uncle of the most honest rules").
Farmer's Boy
He waits all day beside his little flockAnd asks the passing stranger what's o'clock,But those who often pass his daily tasksLook at their watch and..
© John Clare
Farm Breakfast
Maids shout to breakfast in a merry strife,And the cat runs to hear the whetted knife,And dogs are ever in the way to watchThe mouldy crust and..
© John Clare
Farewell And Defiance To Love
Love and thy vain employs, awayFrom this too oft deluded breast!No longer will I court thy stay,To be my bosom's teazing guest.Thou treacherous..
© John Clare
Farewell
Farewell to the bushy clump close to the riverAnd the flags where the butter-bump hides in forever;Farewell to the weedy nook, hemmed in by..
© John Clare
Evening Primrose
When once the sun sinks in the west,And dewdrops pearl the evening's breast;Almost as pale as moonbeams are,Or its companionable star,The evening..
© John Clare
Evening
'Tis evening; the black snail has got on his track,And gone to its nest is the wren,And the packman snail, too, with his home on his back,Clings to..
© John Clare
Emmonsail's Heath In Winter
I love to see the old heath's withered brakeMingle its crimpled leaves with furze and ling,While the old heron from the lonely lakeStarts slow and..
© John Clare
Earth's Eternity
Man, Earth's poor shadow! talks of Earth's decay:But hath it nothing of eternal kin?No majesty that shall not pass away?No soul of greatness..
© John Clare
Early Spring
The Spring is come, and Spring flowers coming too,The crocus, patty kay, the rich hearts' ease;The polyanthus peeps with blebs of dew,And daisy..
© John Clare
Early Nightingale
When first we hear the shy-come nightingales,They seem to mutter o’er their songs in fear,And, climb we e’er so soft the spinney rails,All stops as..
© 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 goWhere hissing..
© John Clare
Distant Hills
What is there in those distant hillsMy fancy longs to see,That many a mood of joy instils?Say what can fancy be?Do old oaks thicken all the..
© John Clare
Dewdrops
The dewdrops on every blade of grass are so much like silver dropsthat I am obliged to stoop down as I walk to see if they are pearls,and those..
© John Clare
Decay
O Poesy is on the wane,For Fancy's visions all unfitting;I hardly know her face again,Nature herself seems on the flitting.The fields grow old and..
© John Clare
Death
Why should man's high aspiring mindBurn in him with so proud a breath,When all his haughty views can findIn this world yields to death?The fair, the..
© John Clare
Country Letter
Dear brother robin this comes from us allWith our kind love and could Gip write and allThough but a dog he'd have his love to spareFor still he knows..
© John Clare
Clock-O'-Clay
In the cowslip pips I lie,Hidden from the buzzing fly,While green grass beneath me lies,Pearled with dew like fishes' eyes,Here I lie, a..
© John Clare
Christmas
Christmas is come and every hearthMakes room to give him welcome nowE'en want will dry its tears in mirthAnd crown him wi' a holly boughTho tramping..
© John Clare
Braggart
With careful step to keep his balance upHe reels on warily along the street,Slabbering at mouth and with a staggering stoopMutters an angry look at..
© John Clare
Bonny Mary O!
The morning opens fine, bonny Mary O!The robin sings his song by the dairy O!Where the little Jenny wrens cock their tails among the hens,Singing..
© John Clare
Bonny Lassie O!
O the evening's for the fair, bonny lassie O!To meet the cooler air and walk an angel there,With the dark dishevelled hair,Bonny lassie O!The bloom's..
© John Clare
Birds In Alarm
The firetail tells the boys when nests are nighAnd tweets and flies from every passer-bye.The yellowhammer never makes a noiseBut flies in silence..
© John Clare
Bantry Bay
On the eighteenth of October we lay in Bantry Bay,All ready to set sail, with a fresh and steady gale:A fortnight and nine days we in the harbour..
© John Clare
Ballad
A faithless shepherd courted me,He stole away my liberty.When my poor heart was strange to men,He came and smiled and stole it then.When my apron..
© John Clare
Badger
The badger grunting on his woodland trackWith shaggy hide and sharp nose scrowed with blackRoots in the bushes and the woods, and makesA great high..
© John Clare