trinkie
06-Mar-08, 19:54
MARCH
By John Clare. 1793 - 1864
From his book The Shephard’s Calendar.
Short extract -
’March month of ‘many weathers’ wildly comes
In hail and snow and rain and threatning hums
And floods; while often at his cottage door
The shephard stands to hear the distant roar
Loosd from the rushing mills and river locks
Wi thundering sound and over powering shocks
And headlong hurry thro the meadow brigs
Brushing the leaning sallows fingering twigs
In feathery foam and eddy hissing chase
Rolling a storm oertaken travellers pace
From bank to bank along the meadow leas
Spreading and shining like to little seas
While in the pale sunlight a watery pool
Of swooping white birds flock about the flood
Yet winter seems half weary of its toll
And round the ploughman on the elting soil
Will thread a minutes sunshine wild and warm
Thro the raggd places of the swimming storm
And oft the shepherd in his path will spye
The little daisy in the wet grass by………..’’
( I think 'elting ' means undulating )
By John Clare. 1793 - 1864
From his book The Shephard’s Calendar.
Short extract -
’March month of ‘many weathers’ wildly comes
In hail and snow and rain and threatning hums
And floods; while often at his cottage door
The shephard stands to hear the distant roar
Loosd from the rushing mills and river locks
Wi thundering sound and over powering shocks
And headlong hurry thro the meadow brigs
Brushing the leaning sallows fingering twigs
In feathery foam and eddy hissing chase
Rolling a storm oertaken travellers pace
From bank to bank along the meadow leas
Spreading and shining like to little seas
While in the pale sunlight a watery pool
Of swooping white birds flock about the flood
Yet winter seems half weary of its toll
And round the ploughman on the elting soil
Will thread a minutes sunshine wild and warm
Thro the raggd places of the swimming storm
And oft the shepherd in his path will spye
The little daisy in the wet grass by………..’’
( I think 'elting ' means undulating )