John Clare

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John Clare (13 July 1793 to May 1864) was an English poet.

He became well-known for his English countryside fêtes and sorrows over its unrest.

His poetry underwent significant re-evaluation in the late twentieth century; he is now considered one of the top twentieth-century writers.

Clare's biographer Jonathan Bate called him "the greatest labour-class poet ever born in England."

No one has ever written more about nature, of a rural childhood, and of the alienated and fragile self."

Life

Clare was born in Helpston, 6 miles (10 km) north of Peterborough's city of Peterborough. The village was in Soke of Peterborough, Northamptonshire, and his monument in honor of him is titled "The Northamptonshire Peasant Poet." Helpston is now a member of the City of Peterborough unitary authority.

Clare became a farmer as a child, but he went to school in Glinton church until he was 12. Clare became a potboy in the Blue Bell public house and fell in love with Mary Joyce, but her father, a wealthy farmer, refused to meet. He became a gardener at Burghley House later in life. In 1817, he enlisted in the militia, lived in Gypsy, and went to work as a lime burner in Pickworth, Rutland. He was obliged to accept parish relief in the following year. Malnutrition may have accounted for his five-foot stature and contributed to his poor physical fitness in later life.

Clare had purchased a copy of James Thomson's The Seasons and began to write poems and sonnets. Clare gifted his poems to Edward Drury of the Taylor & Hessey company, who had published John Keats' work. In 1820, Taylor published Clare's Poems Descriptive of Rural Life and Scenery. The book was well-reced, and Village Minstrel and Other Poems appeared next year. "There was no limit to the applause bestowed upon Clare, who were unanimous in their praise of a poetical genius who appeared before them in the humble garb of a farm labourer."

Clare married Martha ("Patty") Turner, a milkmaid, in the Church of St Peter and St Paul in Great Casterton on March 16, 1820. Clare was paid £45 a year, much more than he had ever earned. Annuity of 15 guineas from the Marquess of Exeter, who had been in whose care he had been to, was supplemented by subscription, ensuring that he received £45 a year. However, his income soon became insufficient, and in 1823 he was practically penniless. The Shepherd's Calendar (1827) had no success, and was not increased by his hawking it himself. His health briefly improved as he returned to work, but Earl Fitzwilliam took him with a new cottage and a piece of ground, but Clare could not settle down.

Clare was constantly torn between literary London and his often illiterate neighbors, between the desire to write poetry and a desire to feed and clothe his children. His health began to deteriorate, and he suffered bouts of depression, which became more prevalent after his sixth child was born in 1830 and as his poetry did not sell well. In 1832, his relatives and London patrons banded together to relocate the family to a larger cottage with a smallholding in Northborough, not far from Helpston. However, he was only there feeling more alienated.

Christopher North and other writers loved Clare's last work, the Rural Muse (1835), but the number of people supporting his wife and seven children were not enough to sustain his wife and seven children. Clare's mental stability began to deteriorat. His alcohol intake steadily increased along with dissatisfaction with his own identity and more erratic behaviour. In which Clare verbally assaulted Shylock, he was a notable exception. Clare went of his own volition (accompanied by a friend of Taylor's) to Dr. Matthew Allen's private asylum in Epping Forest, becoming a burden to Patty and his family. Taylor had reassured Clare that he would receive the highest medical attention.

Clare was described as "full of strange delusions." Patty and Mary married him, proving that he was not a prize fighter and that he had two wives. He began to believe he was Lord Byron. To The Times in 1840, Allen wrote about Clare:

Clare was an Anglican. Clare retained and reconstructed his father's devotion to the Church of England, whatever he may have felt about liturgy and ministry, and however critical a lens he may have cast on parish life. He skipped services in his youth and drank in the fields during the hours of worship, but clergy members provided him with a great deal of assistance in later years. "My father was brought up in the Church of England's communion, and I have found no reason to refrain from it," he said. "Is it true and uncomfortable?" if he discovered aspects of the established church "would honor the cathedral and do from my heart as much as anyone cursed the hand that was lifted to undermine its constitution."

A large portion of Clare's imagery was taken from the Old Testament (e.g.) The Pesant Poet is a video game that was not on display in the University of Peasant Poet. Clare, on the other hand, honors Christ in poems such as "The Stranger."

Clare re-wrote poems and sonnets by Lord Byron in his early years in High Beach, Essex (1837-1841). Child Harold, the Byron's Pilgrimage, became a remembrance of lost love, and Don Juan, a sarcastic, misogynistic, sexualized rant reminiscent of an ageing dandy, became a lament for lost love. Clare took credit for Shakespeare's performances by claiming to be him. "I'm John Clare now," the poet told a newspaper editor, "I was Byron and Shakespeare formerly."

Clare absconded from the Essex asylum in July 1841 and walked some 80 miles (130 km) home, claiming he was going to see his first love, Mary Joyce, to whom he was adamant. When she told him she had died mistakenly three years earlier in a house fire, she did not believe them. For the five months that followed, he remained free, mainly at home in Northborough, but Patty called the doctors.

Clare was admitted to Northampton General Lunatic Asylum (now St Andrew's Hospital) between Christmas and New Year 1841. The accompanying doctor, Fenwick Skrimshire, who had been treating Clare since 1820, completed the admission papers on his arrival at the asylum. "Was the insanity preceded by any significant or long-running mental activity or exertion?" Asked. "After years of poetic prose, Skrimshire came into play."

Earl Fitzwilliam's care for the asylum was paid for "but at the regular rate for poor people." He stayed there for the remainder of his life under Thomas Octavius Prichard's humane system, who inspired and inspired him to write. "I Am" was perhaps his most popular poem. Clare "developed a very distinct voice, an unmistakable passion, and vitality, as shown by later photographs of Van Gogh."

In his 71st year, John Clare died of a stroke on May 20th, 1864. His remains were returned to St Botolph's churchyard, where he had expressed a desire to be buried.

Children at John Clare's birthday, and the children at Helpston's primary parade, display their "midsummer cushions" around his gravestone, which bears the words "To the Memory of John Clare" and "A Poet is Born not Made."

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