Poems Chiefly From Manuscript

John Clare (1793-1864) was an English poet born in Helpston near the city of Peterborough. The son of a farm labourer, he became known as 'the Northamptonshire Peasant Poet', famous for his celebrations of the English countryside and sorrows at its disruption, and is now considered a major 19th-century poet. His descriptions of rural scenes show a keen and loving appreciation of nature and his knowledge of the natural world went far beyond that of the major Romantic poets, while his love-songs and ballads charm with their genuine feeling. Clare received little formal education and was employed in a succession of lowly paid jobs before being obliged to accept parish relief in 1818. Malnutrition during childhood may have accounted for his five-foot stature and contributed towards his ill-health in later life. Inspired by James Thomson's 'The Seasons', Clare began to write poems and sonnets which were published as Poems Descriptive of Rural Life and Scenery in 1820. The book was highly praised and the next year his Village Minstrel and Other Poems was published. However, The Shepherd's Calendar (1827) met with little success and Clare returned to work in the fields, and although his health temporarily improved he soon fell seriously ill. He was constantly torn between London literary life and his own, often illiterate, neighbours, between the need to write poetry and the need for money to feed and clothe his children, and he was plagued by sickness and depression. His last work Rural Muse (1835) was favourably reviewed but this was not enough to support his wife and seven children. Clare's mental health worsened and his alcohol consumption increased, resulting in more frequent bouts of erratic behaviour. In 1837 he went, of his own volition, to a private asylum and during his stay was subject to many delusions, at different times believing himself to be Lord Byron and Shakespeare. In 1841 he absconded, walking the 90 miles home, but the following year was committed to the Northampton General Lunatic Asylum where he remained until his death aged 71 in 1864. It was here that he wrote his most famous poem, I Am, around 1845 which was published in 1848. This posthumous collection of his poetry, jointly edited by Alan D Porter and Edmund Blunden, includes a biographical introduction and many previously unpublished poems. It is arranged in three sections: Early Poems, Middle Period 1824-36, and Asylum Poems.