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[Engraving]

THE POET’S COTTAGE.

NORTHBOROUGH

Drawn & Engd. by C.Marr.

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THE

RURAL MUSE,

POEMS

BY

JOHN CLARE.

[Engraving]

Drawn & Engd. by C.Marr.

NORTHBOROUGH CHURCH.

LONDON,
WHITTAKER & Co. AVE MARIA LANE.
1835.

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TO THE RIGHT HON.

EARL FITZWILLIAM,

THIS VOLUME OF POEMS

IS MOST RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED,

BY HIS LORDSHIP’S

MOST HUMBLE AND OBLIGED SERVANT,

THE AUTHOR.

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PREFACE.

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IT is necessary that I should say something re-

specting the following Poems. They are selected

from a great many, written at different times and

under very different feelings; and if I do not crave

the reader’s indulgence for them, I shall be heartily

satisfied of his good opinion, if he gives me the same

encouragement as he has done with the others I

have published; for if I wished to have it thought

that I was careless of censure, or heedless of praise,

I should contradict my feelings. They were written 10

to please my own mind; but it will be a most grati-

fying addition to find that my old friends are as

warm as usual, and waiting to cheer me with the

welcome praises that encouraged me in the beginning,

though ill health has almost rendered me incapable

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of doing any thing. If I write a short Preface, it is

from no vanity of being thought concise, but on the

contrary, from a feeling of inability to say any thing

more to the purpose, and with much confidence I

leave my little book to the kindness of the reader 20

and the public.

JOHN CLARE.

Northborough, near Market Deeping,

May 9, 1835.

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CONTENTS.

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PAGE

To the Rural Muse ..................................................….… 1

Summer Images ……………………………………… 7

On May Morning .....................................................…… 14

The Vanities of Life …………………………………… 18

Autumn ……………………………………………….. 24

Thoughts in a Church-yard …………………………… 28

Sonnet—To Napoleon …………………………………… 30

The Nightingale’s Nest ………………………………… ib.

The Eternity of Nature ………………………………… 34

Mary Lee ………………………………………………. 37

On an Infant Killed by Lightning ……………………… 40

On Seeing a Skull on Cowper Green ……………….. 41

To P**** ……………………………………………… 44

The Shepherd’s Song ………………………………….. 45

Emmonsale’s Heath …………………………………… 47

A World for Love ……………………………………… 50

Song …………………………………………………… 52

Ballad …………………………………………………… 53

Love …………………………………………………. 54

Ballad ………………………………………………… 56

Decay ……………………………………………… 58

Nature’s Hymn to the Deity ………………………… 61

Impulses of Spring …………………………………… 62

Pastoral Fancies ……………………………………… 67

The Autumn Robin …………………………………… 69

The Evening Star ……………………………………… 74

The Pettichap’s Nest ………………………………… 76

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PAGE

Insects …………………………………………….… 78

The Yellowhammer’s Nest …………………………. 79

To a Poet ……………………………………………. 80

The Skylark …………………………………………. 83

The Quiet Mind ……………………………………... 84

Adventures of a Grasshopper ……………………….. 86

Genius ……………………………………………….. 94

First Love’s Recollections …………………………… 98

A Tender Flower …………………………………….. 101

Ballad ………………………………………………… 102

The Milking Hour …………………………………… 103

The Backward Spring ……………………………….. 104

Nutting ………………………………………………. 106

Home Happiness …………………………………….. 108

The Pasture ………………………………………….. 111

SONNETS.

I. Rural Scenes ………………………… 113

II. Water Lilies ………………………… 114

III. Summer Moods ……………………… ib.

IV. The Village Boy……………………… 115

V. Evening Schoolboys ………………… 116

VI. The Deity ……………………………. ib.

VII. Sedge-Bird’s Nest …………………… 117

VIII. The Shepherd’s Tree ……………… 118

IX. An Idle Hour ……………………… ib.

X. The Shepherd Boy ………………… 119

XI. Lord Byron …………………………. 120

XII. Evening Pastime …………………… ib.

XIII. The Wren …………………………… 121

XIV. A Spring Morning ………………… 122

XV. Spring ………………………………. ib.

XVI. Crowland Abbey …………………… 123

XVII. A Pleasant Place ……………………. 124

XVIII. Vanity of Fame …………………..… ib.

XIX. Memory …………………………… 125

_viii XX. Death of Beauty ……………………. 126

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XXI. Fame ………………………………… 127

XXII. To the Memory of Bloomfield ……… 127

XXIII. The Thrush’s Nest ………………….. 128

XXIV. The Sycamore ……………………… ib.

XXV. The Crab-tree ……………………… 129

XXVI. Winter ……………………………… 130

XXVII. Beans in Blossom …………………… ib.

XXVIII Boys at Play ………………………… 131

XXIX. November …………………………… 132

XXX. Old Poesy …………………………… ib.

XXXI. To Dewint ……………………………133

XXXII. The Milking Shed …………………… 134

XXXIII. The Happy Bird …………………….. ib.

XXXIV. The Breath of Morning …………….. 135

XXXV. Glinton Spire ……………………… 136

XXXVI. Burthorp Oak ………………………. ib.

XXXVII. Evening Primrose …………………. 137

XXXVIII.Sudden Shower …………………… 138

XXXIX. Careless Rambles …………………… ib.

XL. The Old Willow …………………… 139

XLI. The Wryneck’s Nest ……………… 140

XLII. The Happiness of Ignorance ……..… ib.

XLIII. Forest Flowers ……………………… 141

XLIV. The Ass ………………………………142

XLV. Nothingness of Life ………………… ib.

XLVI. Round-oak Spring …………………… 143

XLVII. The Magic of Beauty ………………... 144

XLVIII. The Mole …………………………… ib.

XLIX. First Sight of Spring ………………… 145

L. Earth’s Eternity ………………………146

LI. Honesty ……………………………… ib.

LII. The same subject continued ………… 147

LlII. Slander ………………………………. 148

LIV. Same subject continued ……………… ib.

LV. Antiquity …………………………… 149

LVI. Decay ………………………………. 150

L VII. The Fountain of Hope ………………. ib.

LVIII. Merit ………………………………… 151

_ix LIX. Sun-set ……………………………… 152

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LX. May …………………………..…… ib.

LXI. The same subject continued …….… 153

LXII. The same subject continued …..…… 154

LXIII. The same subject continued………… ib.

LXIV. To Charles Lamb …………………… 155

LXV. Boston Church ……………………… 156

LXVI. The same subject continued ………… ib.

LXVII. Izaac Wa!ton ………………………… 157

LXVIII. Nutting ………………………………. 158

LXIX. The Woodman …………………… ib.

LXX. Shadows …………………………… 159

LXXI. Morning Pleasures ………………… 160

LXXU. Hay-making ……………………..… ib.

LXXIII. Stepping Stones …………………… 161

LXXIV. Pleasant Places ………………..…... 162

LXXV. The Hail-storm in June, 1831 …..… ib.

LXXVI. Eternity of Time …………………… 163

LXXVII. The Fairy Rings …………………. 164

LXXVIII.The same subject continued …………. ib.

LXXIX. The Morning Wind ………………….. 165

LXXX. The Flood ……………………..…… 166

LXXXI. The same subject continued ………… ib.

LXXXII. Shepherd’s Hut ……………………….167

LXXXIII.The same subject continued …………. 168

LXXXIV.A Woodland Seat …………………… 169

LXXXV. The same subject continued ………… ib.

LXXXVI.The same subject continued ………… 170

On Leaving the Cottage of My Birth …………………… 171

_x To an Early Friend ……………………………………… 174

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