Latest / Poems and Songs in the Lancashire Dialect / Selected Poems of John Clare, Volume 2-John Clare

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Selected Poems of John Clare, Volume 2-John Clare · Poems and Songs in the Lancashire Dialect

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: To the Snipe by John Clare read for LibriVox dot
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: Org by David Barnes. Lover of swamps, the quagmire overgrown
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: with hassock tufts of sedge, where fear encamps around thy
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: home alone, the trembling grass quakes from the human foot,
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: nor bears the weight of man to let him pass.
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: Where he alone and mute sitteth at rest in safety
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: neath the clump of huge flag forest that thy haunts.
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: Invest Or some old sallow's stump thriving on seams that
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: tiny islands swell just hilling from the mud and rancid streams,
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: suiting thy nature well. For hear thy bill, suited by wisdom,
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: good of rude, unseemly length, doth delve and drill the
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: jellied mass for food. And here may hap, when summer
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: suns hath drest, the moor's rude, desolate and spongy lap
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: may hide thy mystic nest. Mystic indeed, for isles that
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: ocean make are scarcely more secure for birds to build
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: than this flag. Hidden lake boys thread the woods to
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: their remotest shades. But in these marshy flats, these stagnant floods,
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: security pervades from year to year. Places untrodden lie where man,
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: nor boy, nor stock hath ventur'd near nought gazed on,
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: but the sky and foul that dread the very breath
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: of man, hiding in spots that never knew his tread,
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: a wild and timid clan, widge in and teal and
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: wild duck, restless lot that, from man's dreaded sight will
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: ever steal to the most dreary spot. Here, tempests howl
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: around each flaggy plot, where they who dread man's sight
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: the water fowl hide and are frighted. Not tis power
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: divine that heartens them to brave the roughest tempest and
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: at ease recline on marshes or the wave. Yet instinct
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: knows not safety's bounds to shone the firmer ground, where
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: skulking fowler goes with searching dogs and gun by tepid springs,
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: scarcely one stride across, though brambles from its edge, a
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: shelter flings thy safety is at a loss, and never
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: choose the little sinky foss streaking the moors, whence spar
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: red water spews from puddles fringed with moss free booters
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: there intent to kill and slay, startle with cracking guns,
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: the trepid air and dogs thy haunts betray from danger's reach.
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: Here thou art safe to rome far as these washy,
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: flag worn marshes stretch a still and quiet home. In
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: these haunts, I've glean'd habitual love from the vague world
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: where pride and folly taunts. I muse and look above
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: thy solitudes, the unbounded heaven esteems and hear My heart
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: warms into higher moods and dignifying dreams. I see the
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: sky smile on the meanest spot, giving to all that
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: creep or walk or fly a calm and cordial lot.
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: Thine teaches me right feelings to employ that in the
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: drearest places peace will be a dweller and a joy
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: end of poem. This recording is in the public domain.
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: Birds Nests by John Clare read for LibriVox dot Org
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: by David Barnes. How fresh the air, the birds, how
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: busy now? In every walk, if I but peep, I
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: find nests newly made or finished, all and lined with
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: hair and thistledown, and in the bough of little hawthorn,
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: huddled up in green, the leaves still thickening as the
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: spring gets age, the pinks quite round and snug and
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: closely laid, and linnets of materials loose and rough and
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: still hedge sparrow moping in the shade near the hedge
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: bottom weaves of homely stuff, dead grass and mosses, green
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: and hermitage for secrecy and shelter, rightly made and beautiful,
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: it is to walk beside the lanes and hedges where
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: their homes are by end of poem. This recording is
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: in the public domain. On Seeing two Swallows late in
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: October by John Clare read for LibriVox dot Org by
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: David Barnes. Lone occupiers of a naked sky, when desolate
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: November hovers nigh, and all your fellow tribes in many
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: crowds have left the village with the autumn clouds, careless
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: of old affections, for the scene that made them happy
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: when the fields were green, and left them undisturbed to
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: build their nests in each old chimney, like to welcome guests.
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: Forsaking all like untamed winds, they roam and make with
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: summers an unsettled home, following her favors to the farthest
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: lands or untraced oceans and untrodden sands. Like happy images,
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: they haste away and leave us lonely till another may.
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: But little lingerers old esteem detains ye happily thus to
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: brave the chilly air, when skies grow dull with winters
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: heavy rains, and all the orchard trees are nearly bare,
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: Yet the old chimneys still are peeping there above the
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: russet thatch, where summers tide of sunny joys gave you
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: such social fare and makes you happily wishing to abide
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: in your old dwellings through the changing year. I wish
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: ye well to find a dwelling here, for in the
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: unsocial weather, ye would fling gleamings of comfort through the
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: winter wide twittering as wont above the old fireside and
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: cheat the surly winter into spring. End of poem. This
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: recording is in the public domain. The March Nightingale by
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: John Clare read for Librivoux dot Org by David Barnes.
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: Now sallow Catkins wants all downy white turn like the
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: sunshine into golden light. The rocking clown leans o'er the
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: spinny rail in admiration at the sunny sight. The while
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: the black cap doth his ears assail with such a
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: rich and such an early song, He stops his own
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: and thinks the nightingale hath of her monthly reckoning counted wrong.
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: Sweet jug jug Jug comes loud upon his ear, those
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: sounds that, unto may by right belong. Yet in the
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: awthorn scarce, a leaf appears. How can it be? Spellstruck?
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: The wandering boy listens again again the sound he hears
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: and mocks it in his song for very joy. End
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: of poem. This recording is in the public domain. The
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: Thrush's Nest by John Clare read for LibriVox dot Org
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: by David Barnes. Within a thick and spreading hawthorn bush
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: that overhung a mole hill, large and round, I heard,
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: from morn to morn a merry thrush sing hymns to sunrise.
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: While I drank the sound with joy, and often an
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: intruding guest, I watched her secret toils from day to day.
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: How true, she warped the moss to form her nest,
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  Speaker 1: and modeled it within with wood and clay, and by
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: and by like heathbells, gilt with dew, there lay her
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  Speaker 1: shining eggs as bright as flowers, ink spotted over shells
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: of greeny blue. And there I witnessed, in the summer
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: hours a brood of nature's minstrels chirp and fly, glad
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: as the sunshine and the laughing sky. End of poem.
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: This recording is in the public domain. The Wren by
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: John Clare read forlibrivox dot Org by David Barnes. Why
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: is the cuckoo's melody preferred a nightingale's rich song so
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: fondly praised in poet's rhymes? Is there no other bird
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: of nature's minstrelsy that oft hath raised one's heart to
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: ecstasy and mirth as well? I judge not how another's
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: taste is caught with mine. There's other birds that bear
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: the bell, whose song hath crowds of happy memories brought,
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: such the wood robin singing in the dell, and little
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: wren that many a time hath sought shelter from showers
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: in huts where I did dwell in early spring, the
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: tenant of the plane tenting my sheep, And still they
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: come to tell the happy stories of the past again.
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: End of poem. This recording is in the public domain.
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: The Nightingale's Nest by John Clare read for Librevoux dot
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: Org by David Bownes. Up this green woodland, ride, Let
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: softly rove and list the nightingale telleth here, hush, let
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: the woodgate softly clap, for fear the noise may drive
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: her from her home of love. For here I've heard
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: her many a merry year, at morn and eve nay,
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: all the livelong day, as though she lived on song.
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: This very spot, just where that old man's beard all
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: wildly trails, rude arbors o'er the road and stops the way.
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: And where that child its bluebell flowers hath got laughing
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: and creeping through the mossy rails. There have I hunted
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: like a very boy, creeping on hands and knees through
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: matted thorns, to find her nest and see her feed
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: her young and vainly did I many hours employ all
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: seemed as hidden as a thought unborn. And where these
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: crimping fern leaves ramp among the hazels under boughs, I've
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: nestled down and watched her while she sung, and her
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: renown hath made me marvel, that so famed a bird
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: should have no better dress than russet brown. Her wings
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: would tremble in her ecstasy, and feathers stand on end
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: as twere with joy and mouth wide open to release
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: her heart of its out sobbing songs. The happiest part
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: of Summer's fame she shared. For so to me did
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: happy fancies sharpen her employ But if I touched a
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: bush or scarcely stirred all in a moment stopped. I
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: watched in vain. The timid bird had left the hazel bush,
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: and at a distance hid to sing again, lost in
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: a wilderness of listening leaves, rich ecstasy would pour its
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: luscious strain, till envy spurred the emulating thrush to start less,
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: wild and scarce inferior songs for cares with him for
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: half the year remained to damp the ardor of his
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: speckled breast, while lightingales to summer's life. Belongs and naked
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: trees and winter's nipping wrongs are strangers to her music
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: and her rest. Her joys are evergreen, Her world is
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: wide hark there she is as usual. Let's be hush,
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: for in this black thorn clump, if rightly guessed her
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: curious house is hidden part aside these hazel branches in
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: a gentle way, and stoop right causious neath the rustling boughs.
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: For we will have another search to day and hunt
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: this fern strewn thorn clump round and round, and where
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: this seeded wood grass idly boughs will weighe right through.
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: It is a likely nook in such like spots, and
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: often on the ground they'll build where rude boys never
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: think to look. Aye, as I live, her secret nest
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: is here upon this white thorn stup I've searched about
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: for hours in vain. There. Put that bramble by nay,
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: trample on its branches, and get near. How subtle is
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: the bird? She started out and raised a plaintive note
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: of danger. Nigh e'er we were past the brambles, and
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: now near her nest, she sodden stops as choking fear
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: that might betray her home. So even now we'll leave
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: it as we found it. Safety's guard of pathless solitude
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: shall keep it still. See there she's sitting on the
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: old oak bough, mute in her fears. Our presence doth
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: retard her joys, and doubt turns all her rapture chill
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: sing on, sweet bird, may no worse hap befall thy
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: visions than the fear that now deceives. We will not
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: plunder music of its dower, nor turn this spot of
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: happiness to thrall, For melody seems hid in every flower
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: that blossoms near thy home. These hare bells all seem
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: bowing with the beautiful in song, And gaping cuckoo, with
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: its spotted leaves seems blushing of the singing it has heard.
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: How curious is the nest. No other bird uses such
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: loose materials or weaves their dwellings in such spots. Dead
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: oaken leaves are placed without, and velvet moss within, and
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: little scraps of grass, and scant and spare of what
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: seems scarce materials down and hair. For from man's haunts
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: she seemeth nought to win. Yet Nature is the builder,
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: and contrives homes for her children's comfort, even here where
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: solitudes disciples spend their lives unseen, save when a wanderer
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: passes near that loves such pleasant places. Deeper down the
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: nest is made, and hermits mossy cell snug like her
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: curious eggs in number five of deadened green, or rather
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: olive brown. And the old prickly thornbush guards them well,
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: and here will leave them still unknown to wrong as
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: the old Woodland's legacy of song. End of poem. This
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: recording is in the public domain. The Skylark by John
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: Clare read for Librivaux dot Org by David Barnes. The
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: rolls and harrows lies at rest beside the battered road,
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: and spreading far and wide above the rousset clods. The
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: corn is seen sprouting its spiry points of tender green,
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: where squats the hare to terrors, wide awake like some
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: brown clod. The harrows failed to break while neath the
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: warm hedge. Boys stray far from home to crop the
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: early blossoms as they come where buttercups will make them
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: eager run, opening their golden caskets to the sun to
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: see who shall be first to pluck the prize. And
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: from their hurry up the skylark flies and oer her
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: half formed nest, with happy wings, winnows the air till
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: in the clouds she sings, then hangs a dust spot
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: in the sunny skies, and drops and drops till in
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: her nest she lies where boys, unheeding past ne'er dreaming.
• 17:31
  Speaker 1: Then that birds which flew so high would drop again
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: to nests upon the ground, where any thing may come
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: at to destroy. Had they the wing like such a bird,
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: themselves would be too proud and build on nothing but
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: a passing cloud, as free from danger as the heavens
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: are free from pain and toil. There would they build
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: and be, and sail about the world to scenes unheard
• 17:59
  Speaker 1: of and un scene. Oh, where they but a bird,
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: so think they, while they listen to its song, and
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: smile and fancy, and so pass along, while its low nest,
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: moist with the dews of morn, lies safely with the
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: leverett in the corn end of poem. This recording is
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: in the public domain. The Raven's Nest by John Clare
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: read for Librivoux dot Org by David Barnes. Upon the
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: collar of a huge old oak, year after year, boys
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: mark a curious nest of twigs made up a faggot
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: near in size, and boys to reach it try all
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: sorts of schemes, but not a twig to reach with
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: hand or foot sprout from the pillared trunk, and as
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: to try to swarm the massy bulk tis all in vain.
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: They scarce one effort make to hitch them up, but
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: down they slother soon as ere they try, so long
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: hath been their dwelling there, Old men, when passing by,
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: will laugh and tell the ways they had when boys
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: to climb that very tree, And as it so would
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: seem that very nest that ne'er was missing from that
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: self same spot a single year in all their memories,
• 19:33
  Speaker 1: and they will say that the two birds are now
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: the very birds that owned the dwelling. Then some think
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: it strange, yet certainty is at loss and cannot contradict it.
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: So they pass as old birds living the woods, patriarchs,
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: old as the oldest men, so famed and known that
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: even men will thirst into the fame of boys at
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: get at schemes that now and then the men may
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: captivate a young one from the tree with iron clawns
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: and bands, adventuring up the mealy trunk, or else by
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: wagon ropes slung over the huge grains, and so drawn
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: up by those at bottom, one ascends secure with foot
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: ropes stirruped still a perilous way, so perilous that one
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: and only one in memories of the oldest men, was
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: known to wear his boldness to intentions end and reach
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: the raven's nest, and thence achieved a theme that wonder
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: treasured for surprise by every cottage hearth the village through,
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: nor yet forgot though other darers come with daring times
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: that scale the steeple's top and tie their kerchiefs to
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: the weather cock as trophies that the dangerous deed was done.
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: Yet even now, in these adventurous days, not one is
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: bold enough to dare the way up the old mon
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: monstrous oak, where every spring finds the two ancient birds
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: at their old task repairing the huge nest, where still
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: they live through changes, winds and storms, and are secure
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: and like a landmark in the chronicles of village memories,
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: treasured up yet lives the huge old oak that wears
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: the raven's nest. End of poem. This recording is in
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: the public domain. Sedgebird's Nest by John Clare read for
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: LibriVox dot Org by David Barnes. Fixed in a white
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: thorn bush, its summer guest, so low een grass atopped
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: its tallest twig, A sedge bird built its little benty nest,
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: close by the meadow pool and wooden brig where school
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: boys every morn and eve did pass in robbing birds
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: and cunning, deeply skilled, searching each bush and taller clumps
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: of grass where air was likelihood of bird to build.
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: Yet she did hide her habitation long, and keep her
• 22:18
  Speaker 1: little brood from danger's eye, hidden as secret as a
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: cricket's song, till they well fledged or widest pulls could fly,
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: proving that Providence is often by to guard the simplest
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: of her charge from wrong. End of poem. This recording
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: is in the public domain. The Autumn Robin by John
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: Clare read for Librevoux dot Org by David Barnes. Sweet
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: little Bird in russet coat, the livery of the closing year.
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: Love thy lonely plaintive note and tiny whispering song to
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: hear while on the style or garden seat, I sit
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: to watch the falling leaves, Thy songs, thy little joys repeat.
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: My loneliness relieves, And many are the lonely minds that
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: hear and welcome thee. Anew not taste alone, but humble
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: hinds delight to praise and love thee too. The veriest
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: clown beside his cart, turns from his song with many
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: a smile to see thee from the hedgerow start and
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: sing upon the style. The shepherd on the fallen tree
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: drops down to listen to thy lay, and chides his
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: dog beside his knee, who barks and frightens thee away.
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: The hedger pauses ere he knocks the stake down in
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: the meadow gap. The boy, who every songster mocks forbears
• 23:59
  Speaker 1: the gate clap when in the hedge that hides the post,
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: thy ruddy bosom he surveys, pleas'd with thy song in
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: pleasure lost, He, pausing, mutters scraps of praise. The maiden
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: marks at day's decline. Thee in the yard on broken
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: plow and stops her song to listen thine, while milking
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: brindled cow, Thy simple faith in man's esteem. From every
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: heart that favors one, danger's to thee. No dangers seem
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: Thou seemest to court them more than shone. The clown
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: in winter takes his gun the barn door flocking birds
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: to slay. Yet should'st thou in the danger run? He
• 24:45
  Speaker 1: turns the tube away. The gipsy boy who seeks in
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: glee blackberries for a dainty meal. Laughs loud on first
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: beholding thee when call'd so near his present steel. For
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: sure he thinks thou knew the call, And though his
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: hunger ill can spare the fruit, he will not pluck
• 25:08
  Speaker 1: them all, but leave some to thy share. Up on
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: the ditch's spade, thou'lt hop for grubs and wreathing worms
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: to search where wood men in the forests chop thou'lt
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: fearless on their faggot's perch, nay by the gypsies camp.
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: I stop and mark thee perch a moment there to
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: prune thy wing awhile then drop the littered crumbs to share.
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: Domestic bird, Thy pleasant face doth well thy common suit.
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: Commend to meet thee in a stranger place is meeting
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: with an ancient friend. I track the thicket's glooms around,
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: and there, as loath to leave again, Thou comest as
• 25:52
  Speaker 1: if thou knew the sound and lov'd the sight of men.
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: The loneliest wood that man can trace to thee. A
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: pleasant dwelling gives in every town and crowded place. The
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: sweet domestic robin lives. Go where we will in every spot,
• 26:10
  Speaker 1: thy little welcome mates appear, and like the daisy's common lot,
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: Thou art met with everywhere, the swallow in the chimney tier,
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: the tittering martin in the eaves, with half of love
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: and half of fear. Their mortar dwelling shyly weaves. The
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: sparrows in the thatch will shield. Yet they, as well
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: as e'er they can contrive with doubtful faith to build
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: beyond the reach of man. Yet thou art less timid
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: than the wren, domestic and confiding bird, and spots the
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: nearest haunts of men are oftenest for thy home, preferred
• 26:50
  Speaker 1: in garden walls. Thou build so low, close where the
• 26:54
  Speaker 1: bunch of fennel stands, that e'n a child just learned
• 26:57
  Speaker 1: to go, may reach with tiny hand, sweet favored birds.
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: Thy undernotes in summer's music grows unknown. The concert from
• 27:08
  Speaker 1: a thousand throats leaves thee as if to pipe alone,
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: no listening ear the shepherd lends. The simple plowman marks
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: thee not. But then by all thy autumn friends thout
• 27:21
  Speaker 1: missing and forgot the far famed nightingale that shares cold
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: public praise from every tongue. The popular voice of music
• 27:31
  Speaker 1: airs and injures much thy under song. Yet then my
• 27:36
  Speaker 1: walks thy theme salutes and finds their autumn favored guest,
• 27:41
  Speaker 1: gay piping on the hazel roots above thy mossy nest.
• 27:46
  Speaker 1: Tis wrong that thou shouldst be despised when these gay,
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: fickle birds appear. They sing when summer flowers are prized. Thou,
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: at the dull and dying year, Well, let the he
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: listen the gay be praise. The voice of louder lays
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: the joy thou stealest from sorrow's day is more to
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: THEE than praise. And could my notes steal aught from
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: thine my words but imitate thy lay time? Would not
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: then his charge resign, nor throw the meanest verse away.
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: But ever, at this mellow time he should thine autumn
• 28:25
  Speaker 1: praise prolong, So would they share eternal prime with daisies
• 28:31
  Speaker 1: and thy song. End of poem. This recording is in
• 28:36
  Speaker 1: the public domain. The Petty Chap's Nest by John Clare
• 28:48
  Speaker 1: read for Librivoux dot Org by David Barnes Well. In
• 28:55
  Speaker 1: my many walks, I rarely found a place less likely
• 28:58
  Speaker 1: for a bird to fall its nest close by the
• 29:02
  Speaker 1: rout gold wagon road, and on the almost bare foot
• 29:05
  Speaker 1: trodden ground, with scarce a clump of grass to keep
• 29:09
  Speaker 1: it warm, and not a thistle spreads its spears abroad
• 29:14
  Speaker 1: or prickly bush to shield it from harm's way, And
• 29:18
  Speaker 1: yet so snugly made that none may spy it out
• 29:22
  Speaker 1: save accident. And you and I had surely passed it
• 29:26
  Speaker 1: on our walk to day, had chance not led us
• 29:29
  Speaker 1: by it, nay e'n now, had not the old bird
• 29:33
  Speaker 1: heard us trampling by and fluttered out, We had not
• 29:37
  Speaker 1: seen it lie brown as the roadway side. Small bits
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: of hay plucked from the old propped haystack's pleachy brow
• 29:47
  Speaker 1: and withered leaves make up its outward walls that from
• 29:51
  Speaker 1: the snob oak dottrel yearly falls. And in the old
• 29:56
  Speaker 1: hedge bottom rot away built like an oven with a
• 30:00
  Speaker 1: little hole, hard to discover, that snug entrance winds scarcely
• 30:05
  Speaker 1: admitting e'en two fingers in and lined with feathers, warm
• 30:10
  Speaker 1: as silken stole, and soft as seats of down for
• 30:14
  Speaker 1: painless ease, and full of eggs, scarce bigger en than peas,
• 30:20
  Speaker 1: here's one most delicate, with spots as small as dust,
• 30:25
  Speaker 1: and of a faint and pinky red. We'll let them
• 30:28
  Speaker 1: be and safety guard them well, for fear's rude. Paths
• 30:33
  Speaker 1: around are thickly spread, and they are left to many
• 30:37
  Speaker 1: danger's ways. When green grasshoppers jump might break the shells,
• 30:42
  Speaker 1: while lowing oxen pass them morn and night, and restless
• 30:47
  Speaker 1: sheep around them hourly stray and no grass springs. But
• 30:52
  Speaker 1: hungry horses bite that trample past them twenty times a day.
• 30:58
  Speaker 1: Yet like a miracle in sun lap, they still abide,
• 31:02
  Speaker 1: unhurt and out of sight. Stop. Here's the bird. That
• 31:07
  Speaker 1: woodman at the gap hath fitted from the hedge tis
• 31:10
  Speaker 1: olive green, where I declare it is the petty chaps,
• 31:14
  Speaker 1: not bigger than the wren, and seldom seen. I've often
• 31:18
  Speaker 1: found their nests in chance's way. When I in pathless
• 31:22
  Speaker 1: woods did idly roam, But never did I dream until
• 31:26
  Speaker 1: today a spot like this would be her chosen home.
• 31:33
  Speaker 1: End of poem. This recording is in the public domain.
• 31:43
  Speaker 1: Partridge Covees by John Clare read for Librevoux dot Org
• 31:48
  Speaker 1: by David Barnes. Among the stobbles. When the fields grow
• 31:53
  Speaker 1: gray and mellow, harvest gathers to a close the painful
• 31:57
  Speaker 1: gleaner twenty times a day. Start up the partridge broods
• 32:02
  Speaker 1: that glad repose upon the grassy slip or sunny land.
• 32:07
  Speaker 1: Yet ever it would seem in Danger's way, where snuffing dogs,
• 32:11
  Speaker 1: their rustling haunts betray and tracking gunners ever seem at
• 32:16
  Speaker 1: hand oft. Frightened up, they startle to the shade of
• 32:20
  Speaker 1: neighboring wood, and through the yellow leaves drop wearied, where
• 32:25
  Speaker 1: the brakes and ferns hath made a solitary covert that deceives.
• 32:30
  Speaker 1: For there the fox prowls its unnoticed ground, and Danger
• 32:35
  Speaker 1: dares them upon every ground. End of poem. This recording
• 32:43
  Speaker 1: is in the public domain. Hedge Sparrow by John Clare
• 32:52
  Speaker 1: read for Librivaux dot Org by David Barnes. The tame
• 32:57
  Speaker 1: hedge sparrow, in its russet dress, is half a robin
• 33:01
  Speaker 1: for its gentle ways, and the bird loving dame can
• 33:05
  Speaker 1: do no less than throw it out a crumble on
• 33:08
  Speaker 1: cold days in early March. It into gardens strays, and
• 33:14
  Speaker 1: in the snug clipped box tree green and round it
• 33:18
  Speaker 1: makes a nest of moss and hair, and lays when
• 33:22
  Speaker 1: e'en the snow is lurking on the ground, its eggs
• 33:25
  Speaker 1: in number five of greenish blue, bright, beautiful and glossy,
• 33:31
  Speaker 1: shining shells, much like the fire taiales, but of brighter hue.
• 33:36
  Speaker 1: Yet in her garden home, much danger dwells, where skulking
• 33:41
  Speaker 1: cat with mischief in its breast, catches their young before
• 33:45
  Speaker 1: they leave the nest. End of poem. This recording is
• 33:50
  Speaker 1: in the public domain. High Overhead, that silent Throne by
• 34:01
  Speaker 1: John Clare read for LibriVox dot Org by David Barnes.
• 34:07
  Speaker 1: High Overhead, that silent throne of wild and cloud betraveled
• 34:11
  Speaker 1: sky that makes one's loneliness more Lone sends forth a
• 34:17
  Speaker 1: crank and reedy cry. I look, the crane is sailing
• 34:21
  Speaker 1: o'er that pathless world without a mate. The heath looked
• 34:26
  Speaker 1: brown and dull before, but now tis more than desolate.
• 34:32
  Speaker 1: End of poem. This recording is in the public domain.