This busy rural scene, on the cusp of spring, was described almost 200 years ago, but has the immediacy and vivid detail of all John Clare's writing.

These are the calendar's opening verses.

THE SHEPHERD'S CALENDAR: FEBRUARY

The snow has left the cottage top;

The thatch-moss grows in brighter green;

And eaves in quick succession drop,

Where grinning icicles have been.

Pit-patting with a pleasant noise

In tubs set by the cottage-door;

While ducks and geese, with happy joys,

Plunge in the yard-pond brimming o'er.

The sun peeps through the window-pane;

Which children mark with laughing eye,

And in the wet street steal again

To tell each other spring is nigh:

Then as young hope the past recalls,

In playing groups they often draw,

To build beside the sunny walls

Their springtime huts of sticks or straw.