The "Poems Descriptive of Rural Life and Scenery" were about seventy
in number, including twenty-one sonnets. The volume opened with an
apostrophe to Helpstone, in the manner of Goldsmith, and among the
longer pieces were "The Fate of Amy," "Address to Plenty in Winter,"
"Summer Morning," "Summer Evening," and "Crazy Nell." The minor
pieces included the sonnet "To the Primrose," already quoted, "My
love, thou art a Nosegay sweet," and "What is Life?", a reflective
poem produced under circumstances with which the reader has been made
acquainted. The compositions last named are inserted here as examples
of Clare's style at this early period of his career:--