Presentation on John Clare and "The Rural Muse"

Who was John Clare?

•  “The son of Parker and Ann Stimson Clare, both impoverished farm laborers, Clare was born on July 13, 1793, in the rural village of Helpston, Northamptonshire, England, approximately eighty miles north of London.
 

Seriously! I <3 thatched roof cottages!!!

 

•  Because he had to work on the farm to help support his family, Clare attended school only three months a year, he attended school in Glinton church until he was twelve.

•  Pot-boy in the Blue Bell public house
•  Gardner at Burghley house 
• Enlisted in the militia
•  Tried camp life with Gypsies 
• Worked in Pickworth as a lime burner
•  Before writing he was forced to accept parish relief

This is the asylum Clare was a  patient at

Later Life and Death

•  In July 1837 Clare admitted himself to Dr. Matthew Allen’s private asylum High Beach
•  During his first few years Clare re-wrote famous poems and sonnets by Lord Byron. He also took credit for Shakespeare’s plays. He told a newspaper editor “I’m John Clare now. I was Byron and Shakespeare formerly.” 
•  Released in 1841 but sometime between Christmas and New Year was committed to the Northampton General Lunatic Asylum (now St. Andrew’s Hospital)
•  On the intake paperwork when asked “Was the insanity preceded by any severe or long-continued mental emotion or exertion? The doctor entered: “After years of poetical prosing.”
•  He died on May 20, 1864 at the age of 70

Clare and Captain Jean Luc!

Poetry

•   After purchasing a copy of Thomson’s Seasons Clare began to write sonnets which he offered for sale to a local bookseller named Edward Drury
•  Drury sent this to his cousin, John Taylor of the publishing firm Taylor & Hessey
•  First book of poetry Poems Descriptive of Rural Life and Scenery in 1820
•  This book was highly praised and Village Minstrel and other Poems was published the next year.
• Clare was known as “the Northamptonshire Peasant Poet”
•  Many poems use local dialect ex. ‘pooty’ (snail), ‘ladycow’ (ladybug), ‘crizzle’ (to crisp), and ‘throstle’ (song thrush)
•  Early work deals mostly with nature and the cycle of the year.
•  He often used sonnets and rhyming couplets
•  “His knowledge of the natural world went far beyond that of the major Romantic poets. [Some of his] poems… show a metaphysical depth on a par with his contemporary poets.”

The Rural Muse (1835)

• Clare’s last work
•  While noticed favorably by Christopher North and other reviewer it was still not enough to support his wife and seven children

Context

•  The early 19th Century was a period of rough economic times for publishers and authors alike because of “the great panic of 1825.”
• The cost of books rose to the highest it had ever been.
•  Competition in the market forced many authors to provide their own funding for their works or to publish on commission.
•   The publication of poetry dwindled after the turn of the century due to the increasing popularity of novels.
•  The market for “new verse” was virtually nonexistent Few poets published second editions during this time.

Publication and Reception

•   Published in 1835 by Whittaker and Company (London)
•  Published with punctuation despite Clare's wishes.
• The Rural Muse sold poorly like much of Clare's other work. 
•  “The season has been a very bad one for new books, and I am afraid the time has passed away in which poetry will answer...”

The largest collection of original manuscripts are located at the Peterborough Museum

Websites used for information
 http://johnclaresociety.blogspot.com/
 http://www.poemhunter.com/john-clare/