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