#children'sgames | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

mikesmithrhythmandrhyme · 8 years ago

Text

Thursday, 4th May, 2017

I suspect that this is as developed as I can - or want to - make it, although I might need to highlight some differences between John Clare’s ‘Then’ and my ‘Now’.

‘April’

After reading ‘March’ in John Clare’s ‘Shepherd’s Calendar’ and writing my way into trying to understand why I like John Clare’s writing, I thought I would continue with this poetic model of exploration after reading ‘April’. Remembered from notes made during the month.

Where words are in bold they are words/phrases/lines from John Clare’s ‘April’ - or from other sources, as indicated.

Saw violets in the hedgerow

As I walked to town today,

Yielding up an April state of mind -

Summer’s on its way!

Two nervous little flowers,

Almost hidden from our view,

Their gently petalled beauty

Reassuring as they grew,

As if to say, “We show ourselves

As tokens of the spring,

Along with Geoffrey’s shoures sote *,

And swallows on the wing.”

Close by, some lingering snowdrops

Bid a ‘job done’ fond farewell …

And I reflect on John Clare’s thoughts:

No other months excel.

Sweet month thy pleasures bids thee be

The fairest child of spring

And every hour that comes with thee

Comes some new joy to bring

As sun gives birth to longer days …

And lighter evening hours …

When children play the games we played …

With precious simple flowers …

The time when daiseys bloom divine,

And daisy-chains are spun,

Whilst blazing buttercup blooms are thine **

Bright childern of the sun.

“Do you like butter? Do you not?

Well, you must lift your chin.

If Yes, this little buttercup

Will glow upon your skin.”

Buttercups, and daisies,

Startling images of spring,

And children through all ages

Love the pleasures that they bring -

Real and solid pleasures -

Like our crafted daisy chain,

Now placed upon the maker’s head,

As Queen of her domain.

This season of infolding leaves,

With potent growth imbued ...

Of firstling buds and flowers

Revealing life and hope renewed ...

All around me, daisies ...

Dazzling buttercups galore …

Close by, some fading daffodils,

About to die once more ...

Cowslips, bluebells, primroses ….

An April Wonder Land:

And flowers with every morning come

As dropt by fairey hands.

All these lovely flowers, and more,

I find on Parson’s Lane,

Whilst in the hedgerows birds return

To rear their young again …

And by the hedgerow, growing tall,

A plant to petrify -

Known to me as Dead Man’s Oatmeal,†

But to others, Mother Die:†

Since when I’ve heard of other names,

Like Kill Your Mother Quick:†

A flower my wife was told that she

Must never ever pick!

And when the end of April’s come,

We’ll settle into May,

Whose flowers, say John Clare’s old folk,

Are the soonest to decay. ***

For April gladdens every heart

With freshness deep down things ****

Sweet lovely april fare thee well

Thou early child of spring

* From the first line of Geoffrey Chaucer’s ‘Prologue to the Canterbury Tales’:

Whan that Aprill with his shoures soote

The droghte of March hath perced to the roote

When April with its sweet-smelling showers

Has pierced the drought of March to the root

** What we call buttercups, John Clare called ‘crowflowers’.

*** From John Clare’s ‘Memoirs of Uncle Barnaby’, RN Rowe & EH Robinson, ed. Roger Rowe, publ. Arbour Editions, 2017.

**** From ‘God’s Grandeur’: Gerard Manley Hopkins.

† However, I believe “it is mainly known as Cow parsley and is a biennial or perennial. Native to, and throughout, Europe, it has small white flowers. It is also known as Adder’s meat, Bad man’s oatmeal, Beaked parsley, Blackman’s oatmeal, Blackman’s tobacco, Break-your-mother’s-heart, Bun, Bunker, Cauliflower flower, Cicely, Cisweed, Coney parsley, Cow-chervil, Cow-mumble, Cow-weed, Deadman’s flesh, Deil’s meal, Devil’s meat, Devil’s oatmeal, Devil’s parsley, Devil’s porridge, Dog’s flourish, Dog parsley, Fairy lace, Gipsy curtains, Gipsy flower, Gipsy laces, Gipsy’s parsley, Gipsy’s umbrella, Grandpa’s pepper, Hare’s parsley, Hedge parsley, Hemlock, Honiton lace, June flowers, Kill-your-mother-quick, Lady’s lace, Lady’s needlework, Mayweed, Moonlight, Mother-die, Mummy die, My lady’s lace, Naughty man’s oatmeal, Oldrot, Perifolio, Pig weed, Queen Anne’s lace, Queen Anne’s lace handkerchief, Rabbit’s food, Rabbit’s meat, Scabby hands, Scab flower, Scabs, Sheep’s parsley, Shit parsley, Spanish lace, Stepmother, Stepmother’s blessing, Sweet ash, White meat, Whiteweed, Wild caraway, Wild chervil, and Wild parsley.”

Deadman’s oatmeal isn’t there (though it nearly is).

I found this on-line, in early May, 2017.

“In the 1950s, in Moss Side, Manchester, my mother went absolutely mad when I brought cow parsley into the house as a gift for her. She told me it was called mother’s-die and insisted it was thrown out of the house immediately as she feared it would predict her demise. It didn’t (of course), but I was amazed at her reaction.”

#poem #JohnClare #april #spring #renewal #nature #naturalworld #flowers #children #children'sgames

1 note · View note