Clare's poems E-Book

John Clare

• Herausgeber: John Clare
• Kategorie: Poesie und Drama
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2016

Beschreibung

That some of Clare’s poems belong of right to the excellent things of this earth admits of no dispute. A worshipper of Nature, by whom he was surely appointed to be one of her chief historians, he revelled in her manifestations, whether they showed in the higher heaven of blue or in the lower heaven of green. He was, if the phrases may pass muster, a gossip of the rainbow, a crony of the flowers. His heart was not less slow than that of Wordsworth to leap up with joy when he beheld standing across the sky, its feet treading the horizon, the most splendid triumphal arch ever devised; and though it was not granted him to render homage to his mistress in such large accents as those which fell from the lips of his great brother in song, he paid for her love and favours in music far from perishable, as may be noted by all who will read the pieces that have been selected for this volume from the “Rural Muse.”

Leseprobe

John Clare

Clare's poems

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Table of contents

BIOGRAPHY AND COMMENT

WHAT IS LIFE?

ADDRESS TO PLENTY IN WINTER

NOON

THE UNIVERSAL EPITAPH

THE HARVEST MORNING

ON AN INFANT’S GRAVE

TO AN APRIL DAISY

SUMMER EVENING

PATTY

PATTY OF THE VALE

MY LOVE, THOU ART A NOSEGAY SWEET

THE MEETING

EFFUSION

BALLAD

SONG

THE GIPSY’S CAMP

TO THE CLOUDS

THE WOODMAN DEDICATED TO THE REV. J. KNOWLES HOLLAND.

RURAL EVENING

RUSTIC FISHING

JUNE

DECEMBER

THE APPROACH OF SPRING

TO THE RURAL MUSE.

SUMMER IMAGES

AUTUMN

THE VANITIES OF LIFE

THOUGHTS IN A CHURCH-YARD

THE NIGHTINGALE’S NEST

TO P****

A WORLD FOR LOVE

SONG

LOVE

DECAY

PASTORAL FANCIES

THE AUTUMN ROBIN

A SPRING MORNING

THE CRAB-TREE

WINTER

OLD POESY

’TIS SPRING, MY LOVE, ’TIS SPRING

GRAVES OF INFANTS

HOME YEARNINGS

LOVE LIVES BEYOND THE TOMB

MY EARLY HOME

THE TELL-TALE FLOWERS

TO JOHN MILTON

I AM! YET WHAT I AM

BIOGRAPHY AND COMMENT

In tracing the origin of John Clare it is not necessary to go very far back, reference to his grandfather and grandmother being a sufficient acknowledgement of the claims of genealogy. Following the road at haphazard, trusting himself entirely to the guidance of fortune, and relying for provender upon his skill in drawing from a violin tunes of the battle and the dance, about thirty years before Helpstone heard the first wail of its infant poet, there arrived at the village the vagabond and truculent Parker. Born under a wandering star, this man had footed it through many a country of Europe, careless whether daily necessity required from him an act of bloodshed or the scraping of a harum-scarum reel designed to set frolic in the toes of man and maid. At the time of his reaching Helpstone, a Northamptonshire village, destined to come into prominence because of the lyrics of its chief son, it happened that the children were without a schoolmaster. In his time the adventurer had played many parts. Why should he not add to the list? Effrontery, backed up by an uncertain amount of superficial attainment, won the day, and this fiddling Odysseus obtained the vacant position. Of his boastings, his bowings, his drinkings, there is no need to make history, but his soft tongue demands a moment of attention. We may take it for granted that he picked out the fairest flower among the maids of Helpstone as the target for all the darts at his disposal, each of which, we may be sure, was polished by use. The daughter of the parish clerk was a fortress easy to capture. Depicted by himself, the rascal loomed as a hero; till at last the affair proceeded beyond a mere kiss, and the poor girl pleaded for the offices of a priest in order to save her child from the stain of illegitimacy. However, the schoolmaster proved glib of promises, but fleet of foot, for on the day following his sweetheart’s revelations he was nowhere to be found. In the course of time John Clare’s father was born. In his turn, he grew into the want of a mate, found her, married her, and begot an honour for England.