The Red Robin

Cock Robin he got a neat tippet at spring
And he sat in a shed and heard other birds sing
And he whistled a ballad as loud as he could
And built him a nest of oak leaves by the wood.

And furnished it just as the celadine pressed
Like a bright burning blaze by the edge o' its nest
All glittering with sunshine and beautiful rays
Like high polished brass or the fire in a blaze.

Then sung a new song on the bend o' the brere
And so it kept singing the whole of the year
Till cowslips and wild roses blossomed and died
The red Robin sung by the old spring side.

John Clare


Day 309 / Day 14 of Lockdown 3 (for my record only)
UK deaths up 599 to 89,860 (revised basis), with 37,535 new cases, 37,475 patients in hospital, 3,789 on ventilation and 3,984 new admissions. The UK now has the highest daily Covid death rate per capita. To 13/1, coronavirus rates dropped in all regions in England. 4.1m have now received their first dose of the vaccine. Areas where the vast majority of over 80s have been vaccinated are now inviting in the over 70s and the clinically extremely vulnerable. 24 hour vaccine sites will be piloted in London by the end of Jan. The head of the WHO says that the world is on the brink of a 'catastrophic moral failure' over the equitable distribution of coronavirus vaccines. 72 tennis players are now self-isolating in hotels in Melbourne after passengers on 3 charter flights bringing them to the Australian Open tested positive.