This week’s choice is “Clock a Clay” by John Clare, and it marks the onset of Spring (hopefully).
Day and night and night and day
Red black spotted clock a clay
- John Clare (1793—1864)
Poem 312. Clock a Clay
In the cowslips peeps I lye
Hidden from the buzzing fly
While green grass beneath me lies
Pearled wi’ dew like fishes eyes
Here I lye a Clock a clay
Waiting for the time o’day
While grassy forests quake surprise
And the wild wind sobs and sighs
My gold home rocks as like to fall
On its pillars green and tall
When the pattering rain drives bye
Clock a Clay keeps warm and dry
Day by day and night by night
All the week I hide from sight
In the cowslips peeps I lye
In rain and dew still warm and dry
Day and night and night and day
Red black spotted clock a clay
My home it shakes in wind and showers
Pale green pillar top’t wi’ flowers
Bending at the wild wind’s breath
Till I touch the grass beneath
Here still I live lone clock a clay
Watching for the time of day
This poem is perhaps a little opaque until we realise that “clock a clay” is a Northamptonshire dialect word for a ladybird and the poem becomes clear—one other word needs to be clarified: peeps is another dialect word for the seeds (pips) of the cowslip.
The poem is written from the point of view of the ladybird sitting snugly among the seeds of the cowslip, undisturbed by buzzing flies, pattering rain or blowing wind. Despite the weather, the ladybird is protected by the flower and awaits “the time of day”—a reference to the folk belief that the time of day can be told from the number of spots on the ladybird’s wing cases.
Clare describes the natural world around the ladybird’s sanctuary from the perspective of the insect with some brilliant metaphors: the grass seems like a forest; the stems of the cowslips are “pillars green and tall” and “My home it shakes in wind and showers” and we get a real feel for the world as seen from this viewpoint.
I like it because Clare’s beautiful metaphors show the world from a different viewpoint.
The poem is clearly a favourite as there are many performances on YouTube. It was set to music by Richard Rodney Bennett so there are several musical performances too.