“THE MAGIC WORDS ARE: UP AGAINST THE WALL MOTHERFUCKER”

(after a chat in the pub the other day)

 ”In the month of May, 1848, I was called to Northampton on business, and having seen and admired some of John Clare’s poems, I felt a strong desire to have an interview with him, and I ventured to call at the asylum, and was at once introduced to the principal. I told him the object of my calling, and how delighted I should be to have an interview with him (Mr. Clare). He made no objection, and as it was a very fine day, he said we could go and have a walk in the grounds of the institution. We discussed many subjects, and I found him very rational, there being very little evidence of derangement in his mental faculties. To my surprise he left me and went to the boundary wall with paper and pencil in hand, but very soon returned bringing a manuscript which he had written. The lines were noble in sentiment and rich in language, and I much regretted failing to get a copy. Before leaving him he said he should like to see me again, and intimated that he would in the meantime compose me two or three pieces.”

 — Jesse Hall, 8th Sept. 1893

 

here motherfucker are some magic words, literally written up against the wall of the asylum Clare would die in:

An Invite To Eternity

Wilt thou go with me sweet maid
Say maiden wilt thou go with me
Through the valley depths of shade
Of night and dark obscurity
Where the path hath lost its way
Where the sun forgets the day
Where there’s nor life nor light to see
Sweet maiden wilt thou go with me

Where stones will turn to flooding streams
Where plains will rise like ocean waves
Where life will fade like visioned dreams
And mountains darken into caves
Say maiden wilt thou go with me
Through this sad non-identity
Where parents live and are forgot
And sisters live and know us not

Say maiden wilt thou go with me
In this strange death of life to be
To live in death and be the same
Without this life or home or name
At once to be and not to be
That was and is not—yet to see
Things pass like shadows—and the sky
Above below, around us lie

That land of shadows wilt thou trace
And look nor know each others face
The present mixed with reasons gone
And past and present all as one
Say maiden can thy life be led
To join the living with the dead
Then trace thy footsteps on with me
We’re wed to one eternity