> Jon Boden > Songs > Clock-o’-Clay

Clock-o’-Clay

[ Roud - ; John Clare]

Jon Boden sang John Clare’s Clock-o’-Clay in 2024 on his Hudson album with the Remnant Kings, Parlour Ballads. He noted:

A poem written by “peasant poet” and fiddler John Clare in around 1820. It describes the existence of a solitary ladybird hiding in a cowslip and is full of the forensic descriptive detail and deep emotional connection with nature that marked Clare out from his more well–heeled poetic contemporaries. I wrote the melody in 2020 as part of a choral commission for the Nenescape project.

Lyrics

Jon Boden sings Clock-o’-Clay

In the cowslip pips I lie,
Hidden from the buzzing fly,
While green grass beneath me lies,
Pearled with dew like fishes’ eyes,
Here I lie, a clock-o’-clay,
Waiting for the time o’ day.

While the forest quakes surprise,
And the wild wind sobs and sighs,
My home rocks as like to fall,
On its pillar green and tall;
When the pattering rain drives by
Clock-o’-clay keeps warm and dry.

Day by day and night by night,
All the week I hide from sight;
In the cowslip pips I lie,
In the rain still warm and dry;
Day and night and night and day,
Red, black-spotted clock-o’-clay.

My home shakes in wind and showers,
Pale green pillar topped with flowers,
Bending at the wild wind’s breath,
Till I touch the grass beneath;
Here I live, lone clock-o’-clay,
Watching for the time of day.