Selected Poems of John Clare
Volume 1
Volume 1
Woodland Thoughts
How sweet the wood shades the hot summer hours
And stretches oer my hear its sheltering green
As I recline mid grass and cooling flowers
And seeded stalks of blossoms that have been
Sure tis a pleasure in such secret nooks
To muse on distant fields in memorys eye
Or glance on passages in favourite books
Whose thoughts like echoes to our own reply
Or shades recall which substance long foresook
From the black nothingness of days gone by
Blessings of infant hope and loves young bliss
Ah thus to think the thoughts of death is sweet
In shaping heaven to a scene like this
With loves and friends and feelings all to meet
How sweet the wood shades the hot summer hours
And stretches oer my hear its sheltering green
As I recline mid grass and cooling flowers
And seeded stalks of blossoms that have been
Sure tis a pleasure in such secret nooks
To muse on distant fields in memorys eye
Or glance on passages in favourite books
Whose thoughts like echoes to our own reply
Or shades recall which substance long foresook
From the black nothingness of days gone by
Blessings of infant hope and loves young bliss
Ah thus to think the thoughts of death is sweet
In shaping heaven to a scene like this
With loves and friends and feelings all to meet
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
