Song — Summary

John Clare’s “Song” is a lover’s eager, coaxing invitation. The speaker urges Mary to slip away from her household chores and her cottage as soon as she can, to meet him in the fields where they were together the other night. He brushes aside any hesitation—“Never shilly-shally, dear”—and tells her to ignore the village gossips who call him a roving, untrustworthy swain. What really matters, he insists, is the memory of what passed between them under the bush on the plain. The voice is tender but firmly confident, half playful persuasion and half earnest promise. Everything in the poem breathes with affectionate impatience and a touch of mischief. The mood feels like a private, moonlit secret, warm and folk-like in its simplicity. There’s no grand declaration, just the repeated, quiet certainty that they will meet again, no matter what others say.