Selected Poems of John Clare
Volume 1
Volume 1
Joys of Youth
How pleasing simplest recollections seem
Now summer comes it warms me to look back
In the sweet happiness of youths wild track
Varied and fleeting as a summer dream
Here have I pausd upon the sweeping rack
That specks like wool flocks thro the purple skye
Here have I carless stooped down to catch
The meadow flower that entertaind my eye
And as the butterflye went wirring bye
How anxious for its settling did I watch
And oft long purples on the waters brink
Have tempted me to wade in spite of fate
To pluck the flowers -- oh to look back and think
-- What pleasing pains such simple joys create
How pleasing simplest recollections seem
Now summer comes it warms me to look back
In the sweet happiness of youths wild track
Varied and fleeting as a summer dream
Here have I pausd upon the sweeping rack
That specks like wool flocks thro the purple skye
Here have I carless stooped down to catch
The meadow flower that entertaind my eye
And as the butterflye went wirring bye
How anxious for its settling did I watch
And oft long purples on the waters brink
Have tempted me to wade in spite of fate
To pluck the flowers -- oh to look back and think
-- What pleasing pains such simple joys create
Poems
chosen by David Barnes from
Oxford World Classics: John Clare Major Works, and recorded for LibriVox.org
Oxford World Classics: John Clare Major Works, and recorded for LibriVox.org