John clare biography jonathan bate
John Clare: A Biography
The long-awaited literary biography of the supreme "poets' poet"
John Clare (1793-1864) is the greatest labouring-class poet that England has ever produced. No one has ever written more powerfully of nature, of a rural childhood, and of the alienated and unstable self, but until now he has never been the subject of a comprehensive literary biography.
Here at last is his full story told by the light of his voluminous work: his birth in poverty, his work as an agricultural labourer, his burgeoning promise as a writer--cultivated under the gaze of rival patrons--then his moment of fame in the company of John Keats and the toast of literary London, and finally his decline into mental illness and his last years confined in asylums. Clare's ringing voice--quick-witted, passionate, vulnerable, courageous--emerges in generous quotation from his letters, journals, autobiographical writings, and his poems, as Jonathan Bate, the celebrated scholar of Shakespeare, brings the complex man, his beloved work, and his ribald world vividly to life.
Jonathan Bate is the author of "The Genius of Shakespeare" and "The Song of the Earth." He is Leverhulme Research Professor of English Literature at the University of Warick.
A "Booklist "Editors' Choice John Clare (1793-1864) is the greatest working-class poet that England has ever produced. No one has written more powerfully of nature, of a rural childhood, and of the alienated and unstable self, but until now he has never seen the subject of a comprehensive literary biography. Here, at last, is his story, revealed by the light of his voluminous work: his birth in poverty, his work as an agricultural laborer, his burgeoning promise as a writer cultivated under the gaze of rival patrons, his moment of fame in the company of John Keats as the toast of literary London, and finally his decline into mental illness and confinement in asylums. Clare's ringing voice--quick-witted, passionate, vulnerable, cour
John Clare: A Biography
Reading this biography along with a generous selection of Clare poems, the poet becomes such a more important figure. Yes, he was a laborer, but a remarkable reader, and someone who had an extraordinary ear for English meters. He would use the meters to remember the poems he composed during his day of walking through the countryside, or of doing hard manual labor in the fields and gardens of his home country. He understood things! He appreciated Keats (with whom he was compared), but was disgruntled that Keats had to find a nymph or a dryad behind every tree. Clare actually looked at the trees, and knew enough about them to fill many lines with exact details. In many ways he was a precursor to Hopkins's idea of "thisness," or even of the integrity of "things" in the poems of William Carlos Williams, despite the fact that Clare's metrics are so traditional.
As the Bate biography makes clear, he was also a poet very much shaped by the history of Class in Britain. He was circumscribed by the conditions he was born into. And, interestingly, he didn't really resist those -- those class distinctions, too, were a part of what was. Also I have never really thought enough about the Enclosure Act, and how that changed the British relationship to the countryside (and how it influenced the homesteading of North America). Bate does a great job showing without belaboring the influence of those changes on Clare's imagination.
And then there is the question of Clare's madness. Bate does a good job with the life in the asylums and Clare's way of living there, even while continuing to write many wonderful poems. Despite whatev
John Clare
A Biography
Jonathan Bate
John Clare (1793-1864) is the greatest labouring-class poet that England has ever produced. No one has written more powerfully of nature, of a rural childhood, and of the alienated and unstable self, but until now he has never been the subject of a comprehensive literary biography. Clare’s ringing voice – quick-witted, passionate, vulnerable, courageous – emerges in generous quotation from his letters, journals and autobiographical writings. Jonathan Bate, the celebrated scholar of Shakespeare, brings the complex man, his beloved work, and his ribald world vividly to life.
- First published:
- 2003
- Published by:
- Picador
- Length:
- Hardcover 648 pages
About the author
Synopsis
‘What distinguished Clare is an unspectacular joy and a love for the inexorable one-thing-after-anotherness of the world’ Seamus Heaney
John Clare (1793-1864) was a great Romantic poet, with a name to rival that of Blake, Byron, Wordsworth or Shelley – and a life to match. The ‘poet’s poet’, he has a place in the national pantheon and, more tangibly, a plaque in Westminster Abbey’s Poets’ Corner, unveiled in 1989.
Here at last is Clare’s full story, from his birth in poverty and employment as an agricultural labourer, via his burgeoning promise as a writer – cultivated under the gaze of rival patrons – and moment of fame, in the company of John Keats, as the toast of literary London, to his final decline into mental illness and the last years of his life, confined in asylums. Clare’s ringing voice – quick-witted, passionate, vulnerable, courageous – emerges through extracts from his letters, journals, autobiographical writings and poems, as Jonathan Bate brings this complex man, his revered work and his ribald world, vividly to life.
672 pages
Details
672 pages
Imprint: Picador