Sunday 13 July 2008

The Instinct of Hope

It's John Clare's birthday today - born 1793. Try The Instinct Of Hope from this list.

2 comments:

  1. Ah, I love John Clare. Some years ago I spent a very enjoyable couple of months reading everything he ever wrote, plus a good bio of him by Jonathan Bate. I love his bird-nest poems and also the seasonal ones (I believe "November" is on the list you just linked to). And of course the only one people who know anything about Clare know, about life being a bubble on a stream. But the most poignant has to be the one he wrote after he began to go mad, "I Am."

    Poor, poor John Clare. He really did begin in gladness and end in madness, but at least he recorded his love of the Midlands landscape and its creatures before he died.

    Oh, I just remembered another good poem, and with quite an edge to it: "The Badger."

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  2. There's no doubt, the guy is completely right.

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