Bird and bee
Sing creation’s music on;
Nature’s glee
Is in every mood and tone
Eternity.
Clare comes nearer an imaginative vision of life in this than in most of his poems. But, where Shelley would have given us an image, Clare is content to set down “Tootle, tootle, tootle tee.”
His poems of human life are of less account than his poems of bird and insect life; but one of the most beautiful of all his poems, “The Dying Child,” introduces a human figure among the bees and flowers. How moving are the first three verses!:
He could not die when trees were green,
For he loved the time too well.
His little hands, when flowers were seen,