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:
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:
12 bumbarels: long-tailed tits
13 hedgerows:
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
—Mark Storey, "Approaches to Nature," The Poetry of John Clare: A Critical Introduction, Macmillan, 1974, p. 16.
Study Questions
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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:
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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.
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Last updated March 3, 2019