Featured Poem: Pleasant Sounds by John Clare

The season of Summer is officially here, and we're hoping we'll get to spend more time out of doors enjoying the sunshine in the next couple of months, especially at our HQ in the gorgeous Calderstones Park. On a summer's day there are lots of sights and sounds to be heard - particularly birds chirping, dogs barking and the happy shouts of children, but what are the other typical sounds of summer: an ice cream van chiming in the distance, water splashing (hopefully not from the rain)? Perhaps even the sound of silence as you seek a peaceful getaway.

This week we're keeping our ears out for these pleasant sounds, and we think this poem from John Clare might just help.

Pleasant Sounds

The rustling of leaves under the feet in woods and under hedges;
The crumpling of cat-ice and snow down wood-rides, narrow lanes, and every street causeway;
Rustling through a wood or rather rushing, while the wind halloos in the oak-toop like thunder;
The rustle of birds’ wings startled from their nests or flying unseen into the bushes;
The whizzing of larger birds overhead in a wood, such as crows, puddocks, buzzards;
The trample of robins and woodlarks on the brown leaves, and the patter of squirrels on the green moss;
The fall of an acorn on the ground, the pattering of nuts on the hazel branches as they fall from ripeness;
The flirt of the groundlark’s wing from the stubbles- how sweet such pictures on dewy mornings, when the dew flashes from its brown feathers.

John Clare