By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University) ‘Emmonsail’s Heath in Winter’ is one of John Clare’s most admired poems, its subject being – as the title makes clear – a heath during the wintry season when its ‘withered brake / Mingle its crimpled leaves with furze and ling’. Before we offer […]
Tag: John Clare
A Short Analysis of John Clare’s ‘First Love’
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University) ‘First Love’ is one of the best-known and best-loved poems by John Clare (1793-1864), who is often forgotten when people are recalling the great English Romantic poets. But as this poem demonstrates, Clare’s poetry is a curious blend of the simple or direct and […]
A Short Analysis of John Clare’s ‘The Instinct of Hope’
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University) ‘The Instinct of Hope’ is a poem by the English Romantic poet John Clare (1793-1864). ‘The Instinct of Hope’ is a sonnet (of sorts), which … well, we’ve already hit upon a curious problem. Is this poem a sonnet or not? Below we offer […]
‘Home’: A Poem by John Clare
This wonderful little-known poem from one of English literature’s greatest nature poets isn’t available online anywhere, so we’ve reproduced it below as the latest in our ‘Post A Poem A Day’ challenge. In the poem, John Clare (1793-1864) extols the virtue of home as a place to return to at […]
10 of the Best John Clare Poems Everyone Should Read
The best poems by John Clare selected by Dr Oliver Tearle John Clare (1793-1864) has been called the greatest nature poet in the English language (by, for instance, his biographer Jonathan Bate), and yet his life – particularly his madness and time inside an asylum later in his life – […]