ABSTRACT
John Clare has always been something of a problem for readers and critics; this volume charts their successive attempts to come to terms with him. Behind many of the confident assertions lies a perplexity which springs ultimately from the confusion between the poet’s life and his work. Biographies of Clare abound, but nobody has given a coherent critical account of the poetry in all its detail and abundance. A similar uncertainty and reluctance coloured most of the contemporary comment: it was the phenomenon of Clare, the Northamptonshire Peasant Poet, which was attractive, rather than the poetry itself. Those who espoused Clare’s cause could count on a certain amount of fashionable appeal, but they had to contend with the inevitable reaction against peasant poets and their ilk. Consequently John Taylor, his publisher, Mrs Emmerson, Clare’s indefatigable London correspondent, Lord Radstock and his wealthy friends—all these enthusiasts found themselves putting forward their claims for this latest country bumpkin with some bewilderment, in which extravagant praise was balanced uneasily by cautious reserve. For some, it was rather a question of getting Clare financial security, than of actively encouraging him as a poet: he was just another person to be fed and then forgotten.
