The Mouse Nest By John Clare

John Clare’s “The Mouse’s Nest” introduces the setting of the story in the first line, “the hay.” All of the 14 lines have ten syllables; some lines are in iambic pentameter, which contains an unaccented followed by an accented stress. This consistency of the rhyme indicates the steady life of the rural life Clare presents. The “a” sound of the simple words “grass” and “hay” seems to be similar in meaning, which reflects the simplicity of life in this rural environment. The observer’s point of view seems to be close when he sees the ball of grass. But in line 2, he “passed and went away,” indicating a shift in perspective as if there is nothing going on. The assonance of “as” and “passed” highlights the observer’s ignorance, as if his focus is not on the grass ball anymore.
The repetition of “and” in line 3 and 4 suggests that the speaker continues with his reactions to the things around him. In line 3, the partial rhyme of “ed” of “looked,” “fancied” and “stirred” emphasizes the action of the speaker. He seems to acknowledge something when he looks and ignores the grass nest a moment ago; this “something” catches his attention. As he “fancied something stirred,” this suggests that the observer is curious about something and seems to draw the reader into his world. In line 4, there is an answer to the observer’s curiosity as the word “and” leads the line again to support the parallel structure of these three lines. The “and” in the middle of line 4 with the “and” in the beginning as an internal rhyme contributes to this parallelism. Clare continues to emphasize the verbs end in “ed” with “turned” and “hoped.” The observer is anxious when he anticipates a “bird.” He does not seem to pay attention to what is going on around him mu...

... middle of paper ...

...turn” in the last two lines. Clare presents a different impression from the rest of the poem as indicated by a period before these two lines. The natural life of the farm is disrupted by the water, pebbles, and the cesspools in line 14. The “cesspools glittered in the sun” is an unusual image because normally cesspools are dirty tanks, but here is is “glittered.” Clare might illustrates the idea that one person might see something beautiful that the other does not; there are always different points of view. As the observer watches the mouse and interacts with the environment, he becomes involved in shaping the world. Life is unexpected and keeps changing; the life of nature may be different from human life. The last line and the sonnet(presents love and appreciation of both world) suggest that they can be unified just as the “cesspools” are unified with “glittered.”