CLARE, John


I am

I am -- yet what I am, none cares or knows;

My friends forsake me like a memory lost:

I am the self-consumer of my woes;

They rise and vanish in oblivion's host,

Like shadows in love's frenzied stifled throes:

And yet I am, and live -- like vapours toss't

Into the nothingness of scorn and noise --

Into the living sea of waking dreams,

Where there is neither sense of life or joys,

But the vast shipwreck of my life's esteems;

Even the dearest, that I love the best

Are strange -- nay, rather, stranger than the rest.

I long for scenes where man hath never trod

A place where woman never smiled or wept

There to abide with my Creator, God,

And sleep as I in childhood sweetly slept,

Untroubling, and untroubled where I lie,

The grass below -- above the vaulted sky.


Summer Images
…..
I love the south-west wind, or low or loud,

And not the less when sudden drops of rain

Moisten my glowing cheek from ebon cloud,

Threatening soft showers again,

That over lands new ploughed and meadow grounds,

Summer's sweet breath unchain,

And wake harmonious sounds.

Rich music breathes in Summer's every sound;

And in her harmony of varied greens,

Woods, meadows, hedge-rows, corn-fields, all around

Much beauty intervenes,

Filling with harmony the ear and eye;

While o'er the mingling scenes

Far spreads the laughing sky.

See, how the wind-enamoured aspen leaves

Turn up their silver lining to the sun!

And hark! the rustling noise, that oft deceives,

And makes the sheep-boy run:

The sound so mimics fast-approaching showers,

He thinks the rain's begun,

And hastes to sheltering bowers.
…..


Loves Lives Beyond the Tomb

Love lives beyond

The tomb—the earth—which fades like dew

I love the fond

The faithfull & the true

Love lives in sleep

The happiness of healthy dreams

Eve's dews may weep

But love delightfull seems.

Tis seen in flowers

& in the evens pearly dew

On earths green hours

& in the heavens eternal blue.

Tis heard in spring

When light & sunbeams warm & kind

On angels wing

Bring love & music to the mind.

& where is voice

So young & beautifully sweet

As natures choice

When spring & lovers meet.

Love lives beyond

The tomb the earth the flowers & dew

I love the fond

The faithfull young & true.


What is Life?

And what is Life ? an hour-glass on the run

A mist retreating from the morning sun

A busy bustling still repeated dream

Its length ? A moment’s pause, a moment’s thought

And happiness ? A bubble on the stream

That in the act of seizing shrinks to nought

Vain hopes—what are they ? Puffing gales of morn

That of its charms divests the dewy lawn

And robs each flowret of its gem and dies

A cobweb hiding disappointments thorn

Which stings more keenly thro’ the thin disguise

And thou, O trouble ? Nothing can suppose,

And sure the Power of Wisdom only knows,

What need requireth thee.

So free and lib’ral as thy bounty flows,

Some necessary cause must surely be.

And what is death ? Is still the cause unfound

The dark mysterious name of horrid sound

A long and ling’ring sleep the weary crave—

And peace—where can its happiness abound ?

No where at all but Heaven and the grave

Then what is Life ? When stript of its disguise

A thing to be desir’d it cannot be

Since every thing that meets our foolish eyes

Gives proof sufficient of its vanity

’Tis but a trial all must undergo

To teach unthankful mortals how to prize

That happiness vain man’s denied to know

Untill he’s call’d to claim it in the skies.


An Invite To Eternity

Wilt thou go with me sweet maid

Say maiden wilt thou go with me

Through the valley depths of shade

Of night and dark obscurity

Where the path hath lost its way

Where the sun forgets the day

Where there's nor life nor light to see

Sweet maiden wilt thou go with me

Where stones will turn to flooding streams

Where plains will rise like ocean waves

Where life will fade like visioned dreams

And mountains darken into caves

Say maiden wilt thou go with me

Through this sad non-identity

Where parents live and are forgot

And sisters live and know us not

Say maiden wilt thou go with me

In this strange death of life to be

To live in death and be the same

Without this life or home or name

At once to be or not to be

That was and is not—yet to see

Things pass like shadows—and the sky

Above, below, around us lie.

The land of shadows wilt thou trace

And look nor know each other's face

The present mixed with reasons gone

And past and present all as one

Say maiden can thy life be led

To join the living with the dead

Then trace thy footsteps on with me

We're wed to one eternity