Summer Images

by John Clare

Now swarthy Summer, by rude health embrowned,

Precedence takes of rosy fingered Spring;

And laughing Joy, with wild flowers prank’d, and crown’d,

A wild and giddy thing,

And Health robust, from every care unbound,

Come on the zephyr’s wing,

And cheer the toiling clown.

Happy as holiday-enjoying face,

Loud tongued, and “merry as a marriage bell,”

Thy lightsome step sheds joy in every place;

And where the troubled dwell,

Thy witching charms wean them of half their cares;

And from thy sunny spell,

They greet joy unawares.

Then with thy sultry locks all loose and rude,

And mantle laced with gems of garish light,

Come as of wont; for I would fain intrude,

And in the world’s despite,

Share the rude wealth that thy own heart beguiles;

If haply so I might

Win pleasure from thy smiles.

Taking snaps of summer in Coker Arboretum (The…