Lover of swamps
The quagmire overgrown
With hassock tufts of sedge—where fear encamps
Around thy home alone
The trembling grass
Quakes from the human foot
Nor bears the weight of man to let him pass
Where he alone and mute
Sitteth at rest

In these lines Clare evokes a marginal, waterlogged landscape—swamps, sedge, trembling grass—as a place both physically unstable and socially shunned (“where fear encamps”). The speaker addresses a solitary inhabitant of this quagmire, suggesting a figure (human or creature) who lives beyond ordinary paths and human traffic, in a habitat that resists intrusion (“Nor bears the weight of man”). The passage exemplifies Clare’s characteristic attention to overlooked ecologies and his sympathy for the secluded and dispossessed. The swamp becomes a symbol of refuge and isolation at once: a home protected by natural difficulty, yet marked by loneliness and silence (“alone and mute / Sitteth at rest”).