John Clare

John Clare was an English poet of the early nineteenth century, often referred to as the 'peasant poet' for his depictions of rural life and the natural world. His poetry is known for its precise observation of nature, folk-inspired language, and poignant expressions of loss and identity. Biografía ↓Más ↓

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John Clare

Insects

These tiny loiterers on the barley's beard, And happy units of a numerous herd Of playfellows, the laughing Summer brings, Mocking the sunshine in their glittering wings, How merrily they creep, and run, and fly! No kin they bear to labour's drudgery, Smoothing the velvet of the pale hedge-rose; And where they fly for dinner no one knows-- The dew-drops feed them not--they love the shine Of noon, whose sun may bring them golden wine. All day they're playing in their Sunday dress-- Till night goes sleep, and they can do no less; Then, to the heath bell's silken hood they fly, And like to princes in their slumbers lie, Secure from night, and dropping dews, and all, In silken beds and roomy painted hall.

John Clare

The Skylark

Above the russet clods the corn is seen Sprouting its spiry points of tender green, Where squats the hare, to terrors wide awake, Like some brown clod the harrows failed to break. Opening their golden caskets to the sun, The buttercups make schoolboys eager run, To see who shall be first to pluck the prize-- Up from their hurry see the Skylark flies, And oer her half-formed nest, with happy wings, Winnows the air till in the cloud she sings, Then hangs a dust spot in the sunny skies, And drops and drops till in her nest she lies, Which they unheeded passed--not dreaming then That birds, which flew so high, would drop again To nests upon the ground, which anything May come at to destroy. Had they the wing

Biografía

John Clare was born in 1793 in Helpston, Northamptonshire, England, to a family of farm labourers. He received little formal education and worked as a labourer while composing poetry in his spare time. His first collection, Poems Descriptive of Rural Life and Scenery (1820), garnered significant attention and patronage. His work is characterized by detailed observation of the English countryside, including its plants, animals, and seasonal rhythms. Clare frequently employed local dialect and folk idioms, which lent an authenticity and directness to his verse. Later poems, written during periods of mental distress and institutionalization, grapple with themes of dispossession, identity, and the erosion of traditional rural life due to enclosure. His poetry is noted for its vivid imagery and emotional clarity, often drawing on personal experience. Though his popularity waned during his lifetime, he is now recognized as a major figure in English Romantic poetry. His legacy includes an extensive body of work that preserves a rapidly changing agrarian world. Poems such as 'I Am' and 'To Mary' remain widely studied for their introspective power and lyrical immediacy.

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