The Instinct of Hope

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



Is there another world for this frail dust
To warm with life and be itself again?
Something about me daily speaks there must,
And why should instinct nourish hopes in vain?
'Tis nature's prophesy that such will be,
And everything seems struggling to explain
The close sealed volume of its mystery.
Time wandering onward keeps its usual pace
As seeming anxious of eternity,
To meet that calm and find a resting place.
E'en the small violet feels a future power
And waits each year renewing blooms to bring,
And surely man is no inferior flower
To die unworthy of a second spring?

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on April 18, 2023

31 sec read
174

Quick analysis:

Scheme ABACDCDEDEFGFG
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 573
Words 104
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 14

John Clare

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

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