John Clare

John Clare (13 July 1793 – 20 May 1864) was an English poet, commonly known as "the Northamptonshire Peasant Poet". The son of a farm labourer, he was born at Helpston near Peterborough.

Quotes



 * Arts may ply fantastic anatomy but nature is always herself in her wildest moods of extravagence.
 * 'Essay on Landscape'

Popularity of Authorship (1824)

 * Essay published in The European Magazine, New Series vol. 1 no. 3 (1825)


 * Popularity is a hasty and busy talker, she catches hold of topics and offers them to fame without giving herself time to reflect whether they are true or false.


 * Fashion is her favourite disciple.
 * "Her" being "Popularity"


 * Superstition lives longer than books, it is engraved on the human mind 'til it becomes a part of its existence.

Poems Chiefly from Manuscript

 * Edited by Edmund Blunden and Alan Porter (1920)


 * And what is Life? — An hour-glass on the run,
 * "What is Life?"


 * And don't despise your betters cause they're old.
 * "The Cross Roads; or, The Haymaker's Story"

They're gold in value, though they're cheap to you.
 * Throw not my words away, as many do;
 * "The Cross Roads; or, The Haymaker's Story"

One ant or two to carry, quickly then A swarm flock round to help their fellow-men.
 * And what's more wonderful, when big loads foil
 * "The Ants"

The modern farmer waxes wondrous wise; Opinionates with wisdom all compact, And een could tell a nation how to act; Throws light on darkness with excessive skill, Knows who acts well and whose designs are ill, Proves half the members nought but bribery's tools, And calls the past a dull dark age of fools.
 * In politics and politicians' lies
 * "The Parish: A Satire"

No, rather smile away despair;
 * When trouble haunts me, need I sigh?
 * "The Stranger"

Couldn't bear the buzzing of a fly; I hid my love to my despite Till I could not bear to look at light: I dare not gaze upon her face But left her memory in each place; Where eer I saw a wild flower lie I kissed and bade my love good bye.
 * I hid my love when young till I
 * "Secret Love"

Till een the breeze would knock me down, The bees seemed singing ballads oer, The fly's bass turned a lion's roar; And even silence found a tongue, To haunt me all the summer long; '''The riddle nature could not prove Was nothing else but secret love.'''
 * I hid my love in field and town
 * "Secret Love"

And stick it to my breast — words can't reveal; But there are souls that in this lovely hour Know all I mean, and feel whate'er I feel.'''
 * '''O how I feel, just as I pluck the flower
 * "Nature"

This world has sweets, but they're of ling'ring bloom; Life still expects, and empty falls at last; Warm Hope on tiptoe drops into the tomb.
 * This world has suns, but they are overcast;
 * "Hope"

And empty shadow of what is to be; Yet cheated Hope on future still depends, And ends but only when our being ends.'''
 * '''To-morrow comes, true copy of to-day,
 * "Hope"

Oft picking up with wondering gaze Some little thing of other days Saved from the wreck of time.
 * The ivyed oaks dark shadow falls
 * The Shepherd's Calendar: "July" (second version)

Mingle its crimpled leaves with furze and ling, While the old heron from the lonely lake Starts slow and flaps its melancholy wing
 * I love to see the old heath's withered brake


 * Emmonsail's Heath in Winter

My friends forsake me like a memory lost: I am the self-consumer of my woes, They rise and vanish in oblivious host, Like shades in love and death's oblivion lost: And yet I am, and live with shadows tost
 * I am: yet what I am none cares or knows,
 * I am