The Idea of Landscape and the Sense of Place, 1730 - 1840: An Approach to the Poetry of John Clare

by John Barrell

It is generally agreed that in the early eighteenth century people began to be interested in landscape as something to have a 'taste' for; that they saw landscape through the eyes of the great painters, and that later pictures, poetry and landscape gardening all reflect that taste. Dr. Barrell examines this interest, showing how the taste for landscape affected the poetry in detail. John Clare, who lived most of his life in rural Northamptonshire, whose landscape was being transformed by enclosure, is then taken as the focus of these different attitudes. Clare's truthfulness to the individual locality he wanted to describe would not permit him to use the conventional literary language of his predecessors, and he had instead to find his own language. His success in doing this removed him from mainstream English poetry. This 1972 text brings 'taste' into contact with the social and economic bases of life.

254 pages, Hardcover

First published February 17, 2011

Reviews

[Carla · Rating 5 out of 5]

The right book at the right time.

[Izzy · Rating 3 out of 5]

this felt like... a bone marrow extraction.... with no anaesthesia...

also why did the appendix end with 'fyi i loooove enclosure enclosure was sooooo good actually'

[Lisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

re-reading. Brilliant interpretation of the effects of the land enclosure movement on labour and representation.