Friday Poem: Sonnet: ‘I love to hear the evening crows go by’

I started March with a poem about crows by the nineteenth century Northamptonshire ‘peasant’ poet John Clare, and now I shall end the month with another.

Murmuration of starlings. Wiktionary

Sonnet: ‘I love to hear the evening crows go by’

by John Clare 1793 - 1864

I love to hear the evening crows go by

And see the starnels darken down the sky.

The bleaching stack the bustling sparrow leaves

And plops with merry note beneath the eaves.

The odd and lated pigeon bounces by

As if a wary watching hawk was nigh,

While far and fearing nothing, high and slow,

The stranger birds to distant places go,

While short of flight the evening robin comes

To watch the maiden sweeping out the crumbs

Nor fears the idle shout of passing boy

But pecks about the door and sings for joy;

Then in the hovel where the cows are fed

Finds till the morning comes a pleasant bed.

From: John Clare - Selected Poems

Edt. RKR Thornton. Pub. Orion