Birds In Alarm

John Clare 1793 (Helpston) – 1864 (St Andrew's Hospital)



The firetail tells the boys when nests are nigh
And tweets and flies from every passer-bye.
The yellowhammer never makes a noise
But flies in silence from the noisy boys;
The boys will come and take them every day,
And still she lays as none were ta'en away.

The nightingale keeps tweeting-churring round
But leaves in silence when the nest is found.
The pewit hollos 'chewrit' as she flies
And flops about the shepherd where he lies;
But when her nest is found she stops her song
And cocks [her] coppled crown and runs along.
Wrens cock their tails and chitter loud and play,
And robins hollo 'tut' and fly away.

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

34 sec read
84

Quick analysis:

Scheme AABBCC DDEEFFCC
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 608
Words 113
Stanzas 2
Stanza Lengths 6, 8

John Clare

John Clare was an English poet in his time he was commonly known as the Northamptonshire Peasant Poet more…

All John Clare poems | John Clare Books

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