Wednesday 24 August 2011

Summer Evening



The frog half fearful jumps across the path,
and little mouse that leaves its hole at eve
nimbles with timid dread beneath the swath;
My rustling steps awhile their joys deceive,
till past, and then the cricket sings more strong,
and grasshoppers in merry moods still wear
the short night weary with their fretting song.

Up from behind the molehill jumps the hare,
cheat of his chosen bed, and from the bank
the yellowhammer flutters in short fears
from off its nest hid in the grasses rank,
and drops again when no more noise it hears.
Thus nature's human link and endless thrall,
Proud man, still seems the enemy of all.

By John Clare


4 comments:

  1. Another John Clare poem - you spoil us! I enjoyed this but now that I know something of Clare's history of mental illness I seem to read into his work a certain melancholy and can see perhaps his tortured mind at work here where he speaks of man being the enemy of all.

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  2. Jane: I have just left a reply on your comment to the earlier John Clare poem. I know what you mean - it does render his work a melancholy tinge. He was always known as the 'Peasant Poet' and I come away with a certain childlike naivity combined with his great knowledge and respect of nature.

    More John Clare to come ...

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  3. Jeanne,
    I am very fond of John Clare, and can never read his work without thinking of the artwork of Carry Akroyd. That header about finding the poems in the fields is a wonderful phrase that just cries out to be used in a piece of other work somewhere! Thank you for the treat. Lesley x

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  4. and I'll tell you something silly....

    when I take my walk and I cant ell that nature is hushing and hiding while I tromp by, it bothers me. I wish that I could just tell it all to 'be at ease!' I mean, I really do. Kind of a "no, don't get up!" type of thing. Then again, in early December, when I was walking and the darkness kept catching me still out and I had heard that the gang of coyotes were in the neighborhood, again, I was hoping that, somehow, they might be scared of 'man' and stay away.

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I hope you enjoy this poem ... I love to read your comments