ASYLUM POEMS-- *Gipsies *The Frightened Ploughman *Farewell The Old Year *The Yellowhammer *Autumn *Song *The Winter's Come *Summer Winds Bonnie Lassie O! *Meet Me in the Green Glen *Love Cannot Die *Peggy *The Crow Sat on the Willow *Now is Past *Song *First Love *Mary Bayfield *The Maid of Jerusalem *Song *Thou Flower of Summer *The Swallow *The Sailor-Boy The Sleep of Spring Mary Bateman Bonny Mary O! Where She Told Her Love Autumn *Invitation to Eternity *The Maple Tree *House or Window Flies *Dewdrops *Fragment *From "A Rhapsody" *Secret Love *Bantry Bay *Peggy's the Lady of the Hall *I Dreamt of Robin *The Peasant Poet *To John Clare *Early Spring Clock-a-Clay Little Trotty Wagtail Graves of Infants The Dying Child Love Lives Beyond the Tomb I AM
*Fragment: A Specimen of Clare's rough drafts A Bibliographical Outline
Poems with asterisks are now first printed, or in one or two cases now first collected.
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 would hang low, Me he sought through frost and snow. When it puckered up with shame, And I sought him, he never came.
When summer brought no fears to fright, He came to guard me every night. When winter nights did darkly prove, None came to guard me or to love.
I wish, I wish, but all in vain, I wish I was a maid again. A maid again I cannot be, O when will green grass cover me?
Mary, leave thy lowly cot When thy thickest jobs are done; When thy friends will miss thee not, Mary, to the pastures run. Where we met the other night Neath the bush upon the plain, Be it dark or be it light, Ye may guess we'll meet again.
Should ye go or should ye not, Never shilly-shally, dear. Leave your work and leave your cot, Nothing need ye doubt or fear: Fools may tell ye lies in spite, Calling me a roving swain; Think what passed the other night-- I'll be bound ye'll meet again.
The sinking sun is taking leave, And sweetly gilds the edge of Eve, While huddling clouds of purple dye Gloomy hang the western sky. Crows crowd croaking over head, Hastening to the woods to bed. Cooing sits the lonely dove, Calling home her absent love. With "Kirchup! Kirchup!" mong the wheats Partridge distant partridge greets; Beckoning hints to those that roam, That guide the squandered covey home. Swallows check their winding flight, And twittering on the chimney light. Round the pond the martins flirt, Their snowy breasts bedaubed with dirt, While the mason, neath the slates, Each mortar-bearing bird awaits: By art untaught, each labouring spouse Curious daubs his hanging house.