John Clare (1793–1864)

[See also 1841, 1844 and 1861]

The six sonnets below cannot be ascribed to a specific year but are known from the ‘Knights Transcripts’ to have been written in Northampton Asylum between 1842 and 1864.

‘I love to see the summer beaming forth’

I love to see the summer beaming forth

And white wool rock clouds sailing to the north

I love to see the wild flowers come again

And Mare blobs stain with gold the meadow drain

And water lilies whiten on the flood

Where reed clumps rustle like a wind shook wood

Where from her hiding place the Moor Hen pushes

And seeks her flag nest floating in bull rushes

I like the willow leaning half way o'er

The clear deep lake to stand upon its shore

I love the hay grass when the flower head swings

To summer winds and insects happy wings

That sport about the meadow the bright day

And see bright beetles in the clear lake play

‘The silver mist more lowly swims’

The silver mist more lowly swims

And each green bosomed valley dims

And o'er the neighbouring meadow lies

Like half seen visions by dim eyes

Green trees look grey, bright waters black

The lated crow has lost her track

And flies by guess her journey home