Poets Love Nature
by John Clare (1793-1864)

Poets love Nature, and themselves are love.
Though scorn of fools, and mock of idle pride.
The vile in nature worthless deeds approve,
They court the vile and spurn all good beside.
Poets love Nature; like the calm of Heaven,
Like Heaven’s own love, her gifts spread far and wide:
In all her works there are no signs of leaven,
Her flowers, like pleasures, have their season’s birth,
They are her very Scriptures upon earth,
And teach us simple mirth where’er we go.
Even in prison they can solace me,
For where they bloom God is, and I am free.

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