John Clare, The Ragwort (a sonnet, on the value of overlooked and neglected beauty)

Recorded in March 2022. Composed between 1832 and 1837, and first published in 1924.

Transcript:

Ragwort, thou humble flower with tattered leaves,
I love to see thee come and litter gold,
What time the summer binds her russet sheaves;
Decking rude spots in beauties marigold

That, without thee, were dreary to behold,
Sun-burnt and bare:—the meadow bank, the baulk
That leads a waggon-way through mellow fields
Rich with the tints that harvest’s plenty yields,

Browns of all hues; and everywhere I walk,
Thy waste of shining blossoms, richly shields
The sun-tanned sward, in splendid hues, that burn

So bright and glaring, that the very light
Of the rich sunshine, doth to paleness turn,
And seems but very shadows in thy sight.

(The punctuation is my own.)

Line 4 of the poem is often transcribed "beauties manifold." However, the other reading, "beauties marigold," seems preferable to me. The brilliance of beauties _marigold_ is set in antithesis against the otherwise _dreary_ (or colourless) spots which it decks.

I have also often seen "beauty's marigold"; but I prefer to take marigold as an adjective.