Poems about Love

John Clare

Bria Bowie

Period 5

English

5/20/09

Table of Contents

• Names of Poems– First Love

– Secret Love

– Song(Secret Love)

– To Mary

– To Mary:I Sleep with Thee

– Biography

– Glossary

– My Opinion and Interpretation

The PrefaceJohn 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 hourWith 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 ailMy life and all seemed turned to clay.   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 could not see a single thing,Words from my eyes did start.They spoke as chords do from the string,And blood burnt round my heart.   Are flowers the winter's choiceIs love's bed always snowShe seemed to hear my silent voice  Not love appeals to know.  I never saw so sweet a faceAs that I stood before.My heart has left its dwelling placeAnd can return no more.

http://poetry.com/greatestpoems/poetscornerpoems.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 despiteTill I could not bear to look at light:I dare not gaze upon her faceBut left her memory in each place;Where eer I saw a wild flower lieI kissed and bade my love good bye.I met her in the greenest dellsWhere dewdrops pearl the wood blue bellsThe lost breeze kissed her bright blue 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 songShe lay there all the summer long.I hid my love in field and townTill een the breeze would knock me down,The bees seemed singing ballads oer,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 proveWas nothing else but secret love.

http://poetry.com/greatestpoems/poetscornerpoems.asp?author=John%20Clare

Love Lives Beyond The Tomb…Love lives beyond

The tomb, the earth, which fades like dew- I 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 voiceSo 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-the-tomb/

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 sky And whispers tales of Mary. 

The night-wind 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 bush, And the leaves fall from the tree, All sighing on, and will not hush, Some pleasant tales of thee.

http://poetry.com/greatestpoems/poetscornerpoems.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 placeWhere she broke the rose awayAnd I saw the patten ringsWhere she o'er the stile had gone,And I love all other thingsHer 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 hillWhich I sit upon for hours,Where she cropt some sprigs of thymeAnd other little flowers;And she muttered as she did it

As does beauty in a dream,And I loved her when she hid itOn 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 placeWhere 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.