"Emmonsails Heath in Winter" by John Clare

Department of English

Faculty of Arts, Chulalongkorn University

Emmonsails Heath in Winter

(1959)

John Clare

(June 7, 1917 – December 3, 2000)

Notes

"Emmonsails Heath in Winter" was composed some time between 1824 and 1832 and published in 1908.

1 heaths:

heath (Oxford Living Dictionaries)
An area of open uncultivated land, typically on acid sandy soil, with characteristic vegetation of heather, gorse, and coarse grasses.
‘horses were being exercised on the heath’
mass noun ‘the marshland gave way to heath and sandy scrub’
heath (Cambridge Dictionary)
an area of land that is not used for growing crops, where grass and other small plants grow, but where there are few trees or bushes

1 brake: bracken

2 crimpled: wrinkled

2 furze: gorse

2 ling: heather

5 oddling: solitary

8 brig: Northern English for bridge

10 fare: fair (n.)

11 awe: Northamptonshire dialect term for hawthorn berry

11 closen: small fields or enclosures

12 coy:

"coy," Consolidated Glossary, John Clare: Poems of the Middle Period, 1822–1837, vol. 5, edited by Eric Robinson, David Powell, and P. M. S. Dawson, Oxford UP, , p. 658.
coax, entice

12 bumbarels: long-tailed tits

13 hedgerows:

hedgerow (Oxford Living Dictionaries)
A rough or mixed hedge of wild shrubs and occasional trees, typically bordering a road or field.
hedgerow (Cambridge Dictionary)
a line of different types of bushes and small trees growing very close together, especially between fields or along the sides of roads in the countryside

a line of different types of bushes and small trees growing very close together, especially between fields or along the sides of roads in the countryside

Winter Walk

The holly bush, a sober lump of green,
Shines through the leafless shrubs all brown and grey,
And smiles at winter be it eer so keen
With all the leafy luxury of May.
And O it is delicious, when the day
In winter’s loaded garment keenly blows
And turns her back on sudden falling snows,
To go where gravel pathways creep between
Arches of evergreen that scarce let through
A single feather of the driving storm;
And in the bitterest day that ever blew
The walk will find some places still and warm
Where dead leaves rustle sweet and give alarm
To little birds that flirt and start away.

5

10

Autobiography

I often lingered a minute on the woodland stile to hear the woodpigeons clapping their wings among the dark oaks I hunted curious flowers in rapture & muttered thoughts in their praise I lovd the pasture with its rushes & thistles & sheep tracks I adored the wild marshy fen with its solitary hernshaw sweeing along in its mellancholy sky I wandered the heath in raptures among the rabbit burrows & golden blossomed furze...I felt the beauty of these with eager delight the gadflys noonday hum the fainter murmur of the beefly 'spinning in the evening ray' the dragonflys in spangled coats darting like winged arrows down the thin stream the swallow darting through its one archd brig the shepherd hiding from the thunder shower in a hollow dotterel the wild geese skudding along & making all the letters of the alphabet as they flew the motley clouds the whispering wind that muttered to the leaves & summer grasses as it flitted among them like things at play I observed all this with the same raptures as I have done since but I knew nothing of poetry it was felt & not uttered

—Mark Storey, "Approaches to Nature," The Poetry of John Clare: A Critical Introduction, Macmillan, 1974, p. 16.

Study Questions

In what way is Clare's sonnet like and unlike a typical sonnet?
In what way is Clare's winter scene typical or atypical of a winter scene?

Vocabulary

diction; denotation, connotation

dialect

meter

rhyme scheme

rhyme

alliteration

consonance

assonance

imagery
theme
nature
life
relationship between lives
seasons
freedom

Sample Student Responses to John Clare's "Emmonsails Heath in Winter"

Response 1:

Study Question:

Student Name

2202234 Introduction to the Study of English Literature

Acharn Puckpan Tipayamontri

June 12, 2010

Reading Response 1

Title

Text.

Reference

Clare, John. “Emmonsails Heath in Winter.” John Clare, edited by Eric Robinson and David Powell, Oxford UP, 1884, p. 212.

Clare, John. “Emmonsails Heath in Winter.” John Clare: Selected Poetry and Prose, edited by Merryn and Raymond Williams, Methuen, 1986, p. 136.

Links

John Clare, "Emmonsails Heath in Winter," John Clare: Selected Poetry and Prose, edited by Merryn and Raymond Williams (1986; poem text and glossary)
David Constantine, "Emmonsail's Heath in Winter by John Clare," National Poetry Library (2013; audio clip)
Sam Pickering, "Painting the Wind: Poetic Art and John Clare," Sewanee Review, vol. 113, no. 3 (2005; review of John Clare: A Biography by Jonathan Bate)
John Lanchester, "The Natural," The New Yorker (2003)
Stephen Regan, "John Clare," The Sonnet (2019)

Media		The Romantics, BBC 4 (2006 documentary) Episode 1: Liberty (57:13 min.) Episode 2: Nature (58:06 min.) Episode 3: Eternity (59:00 min.)
		"John Clare," In Our Time, BBC Radio 4 (2017 podcast; Melvyn Bragg and guests Sir Jonathan Bate, Mina Gorji, and Simon Kövesi discuss the poet and his works)
		"Visiting John Clare," Richard Warren Phil Revels (2012; 4:27 min.)

John Clare

"John Clare," Poetry Foundation
"About John Clare," The John Clare Society
Caroline Moore, "The Depressed Poet of Joy John Clare: A Biography by Jonathan Bate," The Telegraph (2003)

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Last updated March 3, 2019