Poems

Poems List

Explore poems from our collection

John Clare
John Clare

The Fox

The Fox

The shepherd on his journey heard when nigh
His dog among the bushes barking high;
The ploughman ran and gave a hearty shout,
He found a we…

383
John Clare
John Clare

The Gipsy's Camp

The Gipsy's Camp

How oft on Sundays, when I'd time to tramp,
My rambles led me to a gipsy's camp,
Where the real effigy of midnight hags,
With tawn…

473
John Clare
John Clare

The Flitting

The Flitting

I've left my own old home of homes,
Green fields and every pleasant place;
The summer like a stranger comes,
I pause and hardly know h…

410
John Clare
John Clare

The Fens

The Fens

Wandering by the river's edge,
I love to rustle through the sedge
And through the woods of reed to tear
Almost as high as bushes are.

403
John Clare
John Clare

The Cuckoo

The Cuckoo

The cuckoo, like a hawk in flight,
With narrow pointed wings
Whews o'er our heads - soon out of sight
And as she flies she sings:
…

487
John Clare
John Clare

The Fallen Elm

The Fallen Elm

Old elm that murmured in our chimney top
The sweetest anthem autumn ever made
And into mellow whispering calms would drop
When showe…

425
John Clare
John Clare

The Cross Roads; Or, The Haymaker's Story

The Cross Roads; Or, The Haymaker's Story

Stopt by the storm, that long in sullen black
From the south-west stained its encroaching track,
Haymakers, hus…

365
John Clare
John Clare

The Cellar Door

The Cellar Door

By the old tavern door on the causey there lay
A hogshead of stingo just rolled from a dray,
And there stood the blacksmith awaiting a dr…

392
John Clare
John Clare

The Ants

The Ants

What wonder strikes the curious, while he views
The black ant's city, by a rotten tree,
Or woodland bank! In ignorance we muse:
Pausing, a…

403
John Clare
John Clare

Summer Images

Summer Images

Now swarthy Summer, by rude health embrowned,
Precedence takes of rosy fingered Spring;
And laughing Joy, with wild flowers prank'd, and cr…

427
John Clare
John Clare

Summer

Summer


Come we to the summer, to the summer we will come,
For the woods are full of bluebells and the hedges full of bloom,
And the crow is on the …

384
John Clare
John Clare

Stonepit

Stonepit


The passing traveller with wonder sees
A deep and ancient stonepit full of trees;
So deep and very deep the place has been,
The chur…

448
John Clare
John Clare

Sport In The Meadows

Sport In The Meadows

Maytime is to the meadows coming in,
And cowslip peeps have gotten eer so big,
And water blobs and all their golden kin
Crowd …

504
John Clare
John Clare

Song's Eternity

Song's Eternity

What is song's eternity?
Come and see.
Can it noise and bustle be?
Come and see.
Praises sung or praises said
Can it be…

420
John Clare
John Clare

Song #2

Song #2

One gloomy eve I roamed about
Neath Oxey's hazel bowers,
While timid hares were darting out,
To crop the dewy flowers;
And soothing w…

21
John Clare
John Clare

Song #4

Song #4

I wish I was where I would be,
With love alone to dwell,
Was I but her or she but me,
Then love would all be well.
I wish to send my …

22
John Clare
John Clare

Secret Love

Secret Love

I hid my love when young till I
Couldn't bear the buzzing of a fly;
I hid my love to my despite
Till I could not bear to look at light:…

421
John Clare
John Clare

Snow Storm

Snow Storm

What a night! The wind howls, hisses, and but stops
To howl more loud, while the snow volley keeps
Incessant batter at the window pane,
…

436
John Clare
John Clare

Remembrances

Remembrances


Summer pleasures they are gone like to visions every one
And the cloudy days of autumn and of winter cometh on
I tried to call them ba…

439
John Clare
John Clare

Scandal

Scandal


She hastens out and scarcely pins her clothes
To hear the news and tell the news she knows;
She talks of sluts, marks each unmended gown, <…

361
John Clare
John Clare

Peggy's The Lady Of The Hall

Peggy's The Lady Of The Hall

And will she leave the lowly clowns
For silk and satins gay,
Her woollen aprons and drab gowns
For lady's cold array? …

388
John Clare
John Clare

Ploughman Singing

Ploughman Singing

Here morning in the ploughman's songs is met
Ere yet one footstep shows in all the sky,
And twilight in the east, a doubt as yet,

352
John Clare
John Clare

November

November


The landscape sleeps in mist from morn till noon;
And, if the sun looks through, 'tis with a face
Beamless and pale and round, as if the m…

417
John Clare
John Clare

Patty of the Vale

Patty of the Vale

'A weedling child on lonely lea
My evening rambles chanced to see;
And much the weedling tempted me
To crop its tender flower;

423