Description
John Clare was born in 1793 in a rural area of England. He was influenced by a number of Romantic poets, including Chatterton, Bloomfield, Gray, and Keats. Clare was very serious about his education and read extensively to develop his poetic skills. He also absorbed the oral folk culture of his community and created a unique poetic record of rural life during the period of enclosure. Clare died in 1864, and his life and work reflect the challenges and strengths of communities throughout history.
John Clare (1793-1864) is one of the most sensitive poetic observers of the natural world. Born into a rural laboring family, he felt connected to two communities: his native village and the Romantic and earlier poets who inspired him. The first part of this study of Clare and community shows how Clare absorbed and responded to his reading of a selection of poets including Chatterton, Bloomfield, Gray and Keats, revealing just how serious the process of self-education was to his development. The second part shows how he combined this reading with the oral folk-culture he was steeped in, to create an unrivaled poetic record of a rural culture during the period of enclosure, and the painful transition to the modern world. In his lifelong engagement with rural and literary life, Clare understood the limitations as well as the strengths in communities, the pleasures as well as the horrors of isolation.
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