The Importance of Little Things
There are several abstract ideas at play in “The Yellowhammer’s Nest,” but the poem’s most important theme is simple: it’s worth paying attention to the little things. Clare conveys this theme through tone as well as content. The speaker invites his companion to “stoop” down and find the yellowhammer’s home, and exclaims “Ay here it is” when he finally finds the nest. His audible excitement emphasizes that the bird’s nest matters. The intimate relationship he creates with his companion also invites us into the poem. When Clare vividly describes the nest, we almost feel like we are there, stooping down at the poet’s side to see the bird’s nest. This experience of taking the time to pay attention to a small thing we might have otherwise missed changes the reader’s perspective by pushing us to see the world differently.
Clare also conveys the value of little things through his careful attention to detail. Throughout the poem, he remains attentive to how this particular yellowhammer’s nest really looks, rather than resorting to clichés about birds or nests in general. He notices that the nest is made of discarded hay leftover from the last harvest and hairs shed by horses. He sees the scribbled lines on the surface of the eggs, and connects them to the lines drawn by a pen. He identifies the old molehill, the “flowery weeds,” and describes the precise depth of the brook, “scarcely deep enough a bee to drown.” By including all that detail in his poem, Clare tells us that it matters, without having to say so explicitly.
Nature as Poetry
The central section of “The Yellowhammer’s Nest” concerns the relationship between nature and poetry. Clare sees the wiggling lines on the surface of the eggs, and connects them to the scribbled lines left by a pen. He states that his “fancy,” or sentimentality, wants to see those lines as “nature’s poesy and pastoral spells.” In other words, their resemblance to writing isn’t superficial, but rather a sign that these eggs are nature’s own form of poetry.
The comparison between the eggs and poetry casts nature as the poet. However, in the next lines, Clare sees the yellowhammer and her partner as the poets. He notes that she lives “poet-like” among the “brooks and flowery weeds.” Clare alludes here to the popular genre of pastoral poetry, or poetry written from the perspective of someone dwelling in the idyllic natural world. When he alludes to “Castalay” and “Parnassus,” he is similarly situating the yellowhammer alongside literary tropes. The other Romantic poets frequently alluded to the classical world in their poetry, so Clare is suggesting that the yellowhammer inhabits not just the material natural world, but the natural world the poets sing about. Furthermore, by comparing the “old molehill” to Parnassus, the home of the muses, Clare suggests that the yellowhammer’s partner is her muse, or the inspiration for her own poetry. By instilling nature with the capacity to write poetry, Clare creates a parallel between his own work and the yellowhammer he describes. Rather than the typical dichotomy of a poet who describes and a nature that is described, in “The Yellowhammer’s Nest” Clare levels himself with his subject by casting the two of them as poetic equals.
