Honest John Clare

In his home village the young John was seen as odd Poor Parker's son was of a lesser god But his fame outlived the fame of the landed gentry and squire And all of his contemporaries in the Northampton Shire. He worked for a local farmer as a boy by day From the neighbours fields he kept their flock away And other chores some hard for a young boy And an easy childhood he did not enjoy. He commenced writing poetry when he was quite young And his verses were in the dialect of the local tongue And his first book of verse brought him notice and fame And his had become a great literary name. But fame did not last long for honest John Clare And worse for him his health was in need of repair After a mental break down he was deemed to be insane And with his wife and his children he could not remain. He was committed to the Northampton asylum where he lived till he died And till the end he pined for his country side Yet his poems written in madness considered as great Though the recognition he deserved to him came too late. His mental disorder confused him in life He thought that Mary Joyce and not Patty Turner was his real wife Still his poems on Nature and love with the best can compare But the price of fame did seem high for honest John Clare. The story of his tragic life becoming well known And his poems on wild life in a class of their own And of the workings of Nature so much he did know And his stature as a poet in time grow and grow. He was not a stranger to heartache and tears And he died in the Northampton asylum where he had lived for years But the poems of the herd boy from Helpston are still living today And such things of great beauty in time won't decay.