John Clare: Selected Poetry and Prose

by John Clare, Raymond Williams (Editor), Merryn Williams (Editor)

John Clare (1793-1864), the Northamptonshire 'peasant poet', is coming to be seen as one of the great English poets. Although he was briefly famous in the 1820s, his later and better work was ignored. In 1840, pronounced 'mad', he entered Northampton Asylum, where he remained until his death.

Much of Clare's best work was published for the first time in the twentieth century. His descriptions of birds and animals, the seasons and the daily life of an English village just before the Industrial Revolution are among the finest in literature. His 'mad' poems, several of which are included here, are moving expressions of fear, loneliness and alienation. This edition by Merryn and Raymond Williams presents a selection of the poetry and prose exactly as Clare wrote it.

Genres: Poetry

262 pages, Paperback

First published August 10, 1986

About the author

John Clare was an English poet, in his time commonly known as "the Northamptonshire Peasant Poet", born the son of a farm labourer at Helpston (which, at the time of his birth, was in the Soke of Peterborough, which itself was part of Northamptonshire) near Peterborough. His poetry underwent a major re-evaluation in the late 20th century and he is often now considered to be one of the most important 19th-century poets.

For other authors with this name see: psychotherapist and artist John Clare, history educator John D. Clare and John Clare.

Reviews

[Kate Savage · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book, and also I don't know if I can recommend it to anyone. I mean, maybe there are a few people who enjoy reading poetry. But poetry from the early 1800s about rural life in England? Poetry that RHYMES? Poetry with delicate descriptions of different kinds of nests and bird noises and the movement of frogs and snakes and fish, interrupted by dirty limericks and paranoid denunciations as the poet goes mad.

What, no takers?

But I was so moved by John Clare and his poems that focus closely on the details of other species and waterways. These are also political poems, a denunciation of enclosures and landowners. Poems mourning particular trees and streams who have been murdered. Poems that are so relevant right now, even with the old-fashioned cadence, rhyme, creative spellings and long-lost peasant words.

When Clare describes a poet, he shows that his main quality is an interest in small and unloved creatures, and a hatred of the culturally-sanctioned cruel ones who wantonly destroy them. Reading these words strengthened that impulse in me: notice these others, recognize they have their own perspective, cherish them, through whatever comes.