John Clare

John Clare wrote some wonderful poems, but he also wrote some terribly basic ones. If you compare him to the other canonical poets of British Romanticism, then he can easily be criticised. He didn’t have the flair of Byron or such control over sensuous imagery like Wordsworth and Shelley; he didn’t......more

This was a pleasant surprise. I only became aware of Clare through Iain Sinclair. Discovering that Clare was a naturalist gave me a certain pause. Then Tuesday saw me heading to a somewhat irrelevant workshop just outside of Indianapolis and I tossed it into my bag. Winter still has a hold on that a......more

Have been reading Clare's poems throughout the year and reminding myself how much I like them. 'The girning winds bit sharp and thin And made the early riser blow his nails, and crizzling frost shot needles in the dyke and crumpt beneath the feet down grassy vales.' I love 'crizzling', 'crumpt' and 'girn......more