John Clare is famous for three things: being a peasant born into great poverty (he started work in the fields at the age of seven); being committed to a lunatic asylum; and being a very great poet of rural life.
The countryside was what he knew, and he treated the place and its people with affection, attention, and respect.
(And even nowadays it's not easy to find celebrated contemporary works of art which treat poor rural people with affection, attention, and respect.)
The Shepherd's Calendar is a series of poems in monthly chapters.
Here's a small section of April. I plan to feature a section from the relevant month as a treat for us all throughout the coming year.
Clare's April is a thing of joy. As a Romantic poet Clare looks back to childhood, but his love of this month is still buoyant in his soul.
I could quote any of this poem, but here's a small taste of it.
To see thee come all hearts rejoice
And warm with feelings strong
With thee all nature finds a voice
And hums a walking song
The lover views thy welcome hours
And thinks of summers come
And takes the maid thy early flowers
To tempt her steps from home.
Along each hedge and sprouting bush
The singing birds are blest
And linnet green and speckld thrush
Prepare their mossy nest
On the warm bed thy plain supplys
The young lambs find repose
And mid thy green hills basking lies
Like spots of lingering snows
**
Beauty and joy...
Thanks, cousin.
Word To Use Today: linnet. A linnet is a small bird famous for its song. The name comes from the French linotte, and before that from the Latin linum, which means flax (because the bird eats flax seed).
photo from RSPB Fowlmere by Tim Felce
No, they're not green, but what was called a green linnet in John Clare's Eastern England was what we now call a greenfinch:
photo by Charles J Sharp of https://www.sharpphotography.co.uk/.
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