The Field Mouse
by Gillian Clarke
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The Field Mouse
Summer, and the long grass is a snare drum.
This poem recalls
Robert Burns‘ famous
poem To a Mouse, on
turning up her nest
with the plough. In
both poems the
mouse represents a
creature that is
powerless against
outside influences.
The air hums with jets.
Down at the end of the meadow,
far from the radio's terrible news,
we cut the hay. All afternoon
The poem
describes hay
making in Wales,
one summer in the
early 1990s.
its wave breaks before the tractor blade.
Over the hedge our neighbour travels his field
in a cloud of lime, drifting our land
with a chance gift of sweetness.
The child comes running through the killed flowers,
his hands a nest of quivering mouse,
its black eyes two sparks burning.
We know it will die and ought to finish it off.
It curls in agony big as itself
and the star goes out in its eye.
Summer in Europe, the field's hurt,
The poem is
concerned with the
Bosnian conflict which
was going on at the
time and how the weak
are affected during
wars.
and the children kneel in long grass
staring at what we have crushed.
Before day's done the field lies bleeding,
the dusk garden inhabited by the saved, voles,
frogs, and nest of mice. The wrong that woke
from a rumour of pain won't heal,
and we can't face the newspapers.
All night I dream the children dance in grass
their bones brittle as mouse-ribs, the air
stammering with gunfire, my neighbour turned
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stranger, wounding my land with stones.
Why is the conflict
never explicitly named
in the poem? What is
the effect of this?
Three nine line stanzas
contain lines of varying
length. This could suggest
the unpredictable,
changeable nature of life
and, specifically, life during
war.
The Field Mouse
Summer, and the long grass is a snare drum.
The air hums with jets.
Down at the end of the meadow,
far from the radio's terrible news,
This stanza gives the
background of hay
making and the war and
is quite general.
we cut the hay. All afternoon
its wave breaks before the tractor blade.
Over the hedge our neighbour travels his field
in a cloud of lime, drifting our land
with a chance gift of sweetness.
The child comes running through the killed flowers,
his hands a nest of quivering mouse,
This stanza deals with
the death of a mouse as
a result of the haymaking process.
its black eyes two sparks burning.
We know it will die and ought to finish it off.
It curls in agony big as itself
and the star goes out in its eye.
Summer in Europe, the field's hurt,
and the children kneel in long grass
staring at what we have crushed.
Before day's done the field lies bleeding,
the dusk garden inhabited by the saved, voles,
frogs, and nest of mice. The wrong that woke
from a rumour of pain won't heal,
and we can't face the newspapers.
All night I dream the children dance in grass
their bones brittle as mouse-ribs, the air
stammering with gunfire, my neighbour turned
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stranger, wounding my land with stones.
The final stanza deals with
Clarke’s own struggle with
what she sees in the world.
The nightmare vision of her
children becoming
embroiled in the brutality
she sees in nature and on
the news
• The poem contrasts hay-making with war.
• Think about the links between the images
used and how they link with each other
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The title is deliberately deceptive.
Instead of being a simple poem
of country life the reader is
bombarded with violent, negative
images of war
Far from what
news? What brings
them back to this
news?
What is the effect of the poem being
written in the present tense?
The Field Mouse
Summer, and the long grass is a snare drum.
The air hums with jets.
Down at the end of the meadow,
far from the radio's terrible news,
we cut the hay. All afternoon
its wave breaks before the tractor blade.
Over the hedge our neighbour travels his field
in a cloud of lime, drifting our land
with a chance gift of sweetness.
This image suggests both the sea-green colour
of the grass and the whooshing sound it makes
as if falls. Once again Clarke uses metaphors to
make the scene more vivid for the reader
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The sound of the
insects in the
grass are
metaphorically a
snare drum.
Rhythmic and
comforting.
This sound is
contrasted by the
jets passing
overhead
The neighbour is putting lime on his fields to improve fertility and
some of it drifts over onto Clarke’s land. The ‘chance gift’ is more
fertile land.
What could fertile land symbolise?
Assonance is used
throughout the
poem to express
the close
connection with
nature that the
poet feels
The Field Mouse
Summer, and the long grass is a snare drum.
The air hums with jets.
Down at the end of the meadow,
far from the radio's terrible news,
we cut the hay. All afternoon
its wave breaks before the tractor blade.
Over the hedge our neighbour travels his field
in a cloud of lime, drifting our land
with a chance gift of sweetness.
Violent imagery sets the tone throughout the first stanza
despite the fact that violence is only hinted at here
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Continuation of violent imagery
How do these images link to
the war in Bosnia?
Both
Bosnians and
Britons are
European
and Clarke
emphasises
our
similarities
and
differences in
this line
The child comes running through the killed flowers,
his hands a nest of quivering mouse,
its black eyes two sparks burning.
We know it will die and ought to finish it off.
The death of the
It curls in agony big as itself
mouse is an
and the star goes out in its eye.
unexpected result
Summer in Europe, the field's hurt,
of something
and the children kneel in long grass
pleasant
staring at what we have crushed.
In what sense does the poet feel responsible? Is she
emphasising that violence can be unintentional? Or does this
mean that we are all guilty for war, too?
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Shows the child’s concern for the creature
but also highlights the fact that the real
nest has been destroyed by the tractor
Images of fire
and light and
darkness. How
might this link to
the poems
meaning?
Although a mouse’s death may be
insignificant to us it is not to the
mouse. The pain is as big as the
mouse.
Could this stress the scale of pain of
a whole country
The child comes running through the killed flowers,
his hands a nest of quivering mouse,
its black eyes two sparks burning.
We know it will die and ought to finish it off.
It curls in agony big as itself
and the star goes out in its eye.
The children in Britain see the
Summer in Europe, the field's hurt,
pain of a mouse whereas in
and the children kneel in long grass
Bosnia the see human pain,
staring at what we have crushed.
death and suffering.
Do children look reproachfully at
the damge adults do?
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The filed is personified again as
being in pain. In one sense this could
be the pain of all the animals that
have been killed by the tractor
Clarke is possibly
commenting on
the stupid
reasons for the
Bosnian conflict
and the fact that
old grudges
‘won’t heal’.
Could the
‘rumour of pain’
also refer to the
sounds of the
harvest? Sounds
which are linked
to war throughout
the poem.
The animals in Wales that
have survived and the
refugees in Bosnia
"We call hay
Before day's done the field lies bleeding,
making cutting the
the dusk garden inhabited by the saved, voles, hay", says Clarke,
frogs, and nest of mice. The wrong that woke
"but the Welsh
from a rumour of pain won't heal,
equivalent
and we can't face the newspapers.
translates as 'killing
All night I dream the children dance in grass
the hay'."
their bones brittle as mouse-ribs, the air
stammering with gunfire, my neighbour turned
stranger, wounding my land with stones.
They can’t bear to read of the conflict which, at least
symbolically, the mouse makes her remember
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The poem ends with Clarke’s nightmare vision of her own vulnerable
children living in a world of gunfire and neighbour turning on neighbour.
Before day's done the field lies bleeding,
the dusk garden inhabited by the saved, voles,
frogs, and nest of mice. The wrong that woke
from a rumour of pain won't heal,
and we can't face the newspapers.
All night I dream the children dance in grass
their bones brittle as mouse-ribs, the air
stammering with gunfire, my neighbour turned
stranger, wounding my land with stones.
Might the dance be
the frantic attempts
to avoid gunfire? Or
worse, the jolting
bodies of those
being shot?
Contrast with the first stanza in which the neighbour gave a
‘gift of sweetness’. This mirrors the conflict in Bosnia where
neighbours became enemies over night over religion
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Review
1. How does the poet show her concern in the poem:
• for the animals threatened or harmed by the mowing?
• for her own children?
• for peace in the wider world?
2. How well does Gillian Clarke succeed in showing how
things around one and things happening in other places
are all parts of a joined-up process in the world?
3. Does the poem associate the children's concern for
animals with other themes?
4. What has this poem, which describes events in the
countryside, got to do with the newspapers? Why can
the poet not "face" them?
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Comparisons
Patroling Barnegat
• Both poems are from personal experience; both have
nightmarish qualities.
• Out in the storm, Whitman reflects on the violence of the
natural world; Clarke is awakened to violence committed
by man.
Sonnet: Clare
•Clare's poem is very celebratory and innocent. There is no
violence in the natural world he describes - and no humans
to cause it - unlike in Clarke's poem.
• The Field Mouse is more loosely structured than Sonnet,
and its language much more F/H
varied.
Comparisons
Heaney
• List the Heaney poems you know that link to this one.
• Write down the key themes, ideas and techniques used
and then try to match them to other poems.
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