Poems about Love
John Clare
Bria Bowie
Period 5
English
5/20/09
Table of Contents
• Names of Poems
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First Love
Secret Love
Song(Secret Love)
To Mary
To Mary:I Sleep with Thee
Biography
Glossary
My Opinion and Interpretation
The Preface
John Clare was born on July 13, 1793 and died on May 20,1864. He was know as the Northamptonshire
Peasant Poet. Also he is considered one of the most important 19 th century poets. Clare became an
agricultural laborer whilst still a child, however he attended school in Glinton church until he was
twelve. Since his formal education was brief, Clare resisted the use of the increasingly-standardized
English grammar and orthography in his poetry and prose. Many of his poems incorporate terms used
locally in his Northamptonshire dialect, such as 'pooty' (snail), 'lady-cow' (ladybird), 'crizzle' (to
crisp) and 'throstle' (song thrush). The poems that I am going to be talking about are about love and
relationships. This poet’s poems are always about love and relationships. In his early adult years,
Clare became a pot-boy in the Blue Bell public house and fell in love with Mary Joyce; but her
father, a prosperous farmer, forbade her to meet him. Subsequently he was a gardener at Burghley
House. He enlisted in the militia, tried camp life with Gypsies, and worked in Pickworth as a lime
burner in 1817, but in the following year he was obliged to accept parish relief. Malnutrition
stemming from childhood would be the main culprit behind his 5-ft stature and contributed to his
poor physical health in later life.Clare had bought a copy of Thomson's Seasons out of his scanty
earnings and had begun to write poems. In an attempt to hold off his parents' eviction from their
home, Clare offered his poems to a local bookseller named Edward Drury. Clare eventually
befriended the author of Seasons who introduced his poems to his cousin John Taylor of the
publishing firm of Taylor & Hessey, who had published the work of John Keats. They issued the
Poems Descriptive of Rural Life and Scenery in 1820. This book was highly praised, and in the next
year his Village Minstrel and other Poems were published.Clare began to find himself discontent
with the fact that his style of poetry was no longer in the current "fashion", but also felt that he did
not belong with other peasants. Clare once wrote "I live here among the ignorant like a lost man in
fact like one whom the rest seems careless of having anything to do with—they hardly dare talk in
my company for fear I should mention them in my writings and I find more pleasure in wandering
the fields than in musing among my silent neighbors who are insensible to everything but toiling and
talking of it and that to no purpose." It is common to see the absence of punctuation in many of
Clare's original writings, although many publishers felt the need to remedy this practice in the
majority of his work. Clare argued with his editors about how it should be presented to the public.
First Love…
I ne'er was struck before that hour
With love so sudden and so sweet.
Her face it bloomed like a sweet flower
And stole my heart away complete.
My face turned pale, a deadly pale.
My legs refused to walk away,
And when she looked what could I ail
My life and all seemed turned to clay.
I could not see a single thing,
Words from my eyes did start.
They spoke as chords do from the s
tring,
And blood burnt round my heart.
Are flowers the winter's choice
Is love's bed always snow
She seemed to hear my silent voice
Not love appeals to know.
And then my blood rushed to my face
And took my eyesight quite away.
The trees and bushes round the place
Seemed midnight at noonday.
I never saw so sweet a face
As that I stood before.
My heart has left its dwelling place
And can return no more.
http://poetry.com/greatestpoems/poetscornerpoems.asp?author=J
ohn%20Clare
http://poetry.com/greatestpoems/p
oetscornerpoems.asp?author=John
%20Clare
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:
I dare not gaze upon her face
But left her memory in each place;
Where eer I saw a wild flower lie
I kissed and bade my love good bye
.
I met her in the greenest dells
Where dewdrops pearl the wood bl
ue bells
The lost breeze kissed her bright bl
ue eye,
The bee kissed and went singing by
,
A sunbeam found a passage there,
A gold chain round her neck so fair;
As secret as the wild bee's song
She lay there all the summer long.
I hid my love in field and town
Till een the breeze would knock me
down,
The bees seemed singing ballads oe
r,
The fly's bass turned a lion's roar;
And even silence found a tongue,
To haunt me all the summer long;
The riddle nature could not prove
Was nothing else but secret love.
Love Lives Beyond The Tomb…
Love lives beyond
The tomb, the earth, which
fades like dewI love the fond,
The faithful, and the true.
Love lies in sleep,
The happiness of healthy
dreams,
Eve's dews may weep,
But love delightful seems.
'Tis seen in flowers,
And in the even's pearly dew
On earth's green hours,
And in the heaven's eternal
blue.
‘Tis heard in spring
When light and sunbeams,
warm and kind,
On angels wing
Bring love and music to the
wind.
And where is voice
So young, so beautiful, so
sweet
As nature's choice,
Where spring and lovers meet?
Love lies beyond
The tomb, the earth, the
flowers, and dew.
I love the fond,
The faithful, young, and true.
http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/love-lives-beyond-thetomb/
To Mary…
I sleep with thee, and wake with thee,
And yet thou art not there;
I fill my arms with thoughts of thee
,
And press the common air.
Thy eyes are gazing upon mine
When thou art out of sight;
My lips are always touching thine
At morning, noon, and night.
I think and speak of other things
To keep my mind at rest,
But still to thee my memory clings
Like love in woman's breast.
I hide it from the world's wide eye
And think and speak contrary,
But soft the wind comes from the s
ky
And whispers tales of Mary.
The nightwind whispers in my ear,
The moon shines on my face;
The burden still of chilling fear
I find in every place.
The breeze is whispering in the bus
h,
And the leaves fall from the tree,
All sighing on, and will not hush,
Some pleasant tales of thee.
http://poetry.com/greatestpoems/poetscornerpoe
ms.asp?author=John%20Clare
Where She Told Her Love…
I saw her crop a rose
Right early in the day,
And I went to kiss the place
Where she broke the rose away
And I saw the patten rings
Where she o'er the stile had gone,
And I love all other things
Her bright eyes look upon.
If she looks upon the hedge or up
the leafing tree,
The whitethorn or the brown oak are
made dearer things to me.
I have a pleasant hill
Which I sit upon for hours,
Where she cropt some sprigs of
thyme
And other little flowers;
And she muttered as she did it
As does beauty in a dream,
And I loved her when she hid it
On her breast, so like to cream,
Near the brown mole on her neck
that to me a diamond shone;
Then my eye was like to fire, and
my heart was like to stone.
There is a small green place
Where cowslips early curled,
Which on Sabbath day I traced,
The dearest in the world.
A little oak spreads o'er it,
And throws a shadow round,
A green sward close before it,
The greenest ever found:
There is not a woodland nigh nor is
there a green grove,
Yet stood the fair maid nigh me and
told me all her love.
http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/where-she-told-her-love/
Glossary
• Ail-to cause pain,
uneasiness, or trouble to
• Chords-a feeling or
emotion
• Dwelling-a building or
place of shelter to live in
• Appeals-an earnest request
for aid
• Despite-in spite of,
notwithstanding
• Thyme-any of numerous
plants belonging to the
genus Thymus
• Bade-to command
• Nigh-near in space, time,
or relation
• Eternal-without beginning
or end; lasting forever,
always existing
• Dews-moisture condensed
from the atmosphere, esp.
at night, and deposited in
the form of small drops
upon any cool surface.
Interpretation and Opinion
•
My opinion is that he is in love with somebody because all his poems is about love. I think love is
always in somebody’s heart. You can fall in and out of love. Some people just say they’re in love just
to say it or get something. Everybody will always have love for that one person. Even if they aren't
together anymore they will always have their heart. Love is pain and happiness. Love can hurt
because somebody can break your heart. Like if you’re really in love and then something bad
happens it can really hurt. Love can be happiness because it brings joy to you and your heart. Also
there is love all around you. People may love you and you don’t even know it. My interpretation of
the poem First Love is that it is talking about how it feels to be in and out of love. Also that it is very
complicated to explain love. Love is an undefined word. Every person has a different definition of
love, so there isn't a specific definition. There are many ways to express love. This poem didn’t really
bring me any emotions because the people that I love loves me back. I know that when somebody tells
you they love you it feels good to be loved. Sometimes when people love you they will always love
you. I have many people that I really love and many people I love just for fun or as friends. My next
interpretation is on the second poem, which is called Secret Love. I think that this poem is about
someone holding their love in because they didn’t want to get hurt by love. Also it says that the love
was too strong so they had to let it free. Also it’s saying that he let go of his love for the girl. He gives
examples of how he feels about letting her go. He also compares things to him letting her go. Like he
says a bee kisses the flower goodbye until next time. That is what he is doing with his love, he is
saying goodbye. I have a strong connection with this poem because I have had to let someone go that
I loved. It is very hard because you know that you can never speak with them and have the same love
as before. I have felt like this before because I lost someone very close she was like a grandma. Also I
lost my aunt last year. So when you loose someone like that it hurts because you can never see them
again. Also another way of hurting from love is when you move away from that person. My third
poem is Love Lives Beyond the Tomb. I think that poem is talking about the goodness of love. In this
poem it isn't talking about getting hurt by love, it’s telling you how good it is. The next poem is To
Mary. This poem is about his love not being there anymore. He says he sleeps but his love is not
there. I think that his love left him for good. I do not have any connections with this poem because no
one has left me for good. Either I leave them or they come back. The last poem that I will interpret is
Where She Told her Love. This is talking about how her love is special to him and always will be. I
have no connections to this poem.