Chapter I: AM: yet what I am none cares or knows,

My friends forsake me like a memory lost; I am the self-consumer of my woes, They rise and vanish in oblivious host, Like shades in love and death's oblivion lost; And yet I am, and live with shadows tost

Into the nothingness of scorn and noise, Into the living sea of waking dreams, Where there is neither sense of life nor joys, But the vast shipwreck of my life's esteems; And een the dearest--that I loved the best-- Are strange--nay, rather stranger than the rest.

I long for scenes where man has never trod; A place where woman never smiled or wept; There to abide with my Creator, GOD, And sleep as I in childhood sweetly slept: Untroubling and untroubled where I lie; The grass below--above the vaulted sky.

APPENDICES

_Fragment_

_A Specimen of Clare's rough drafts_

In a huge cloud of mountain hue The sun sets dark nor shudders through One single beam to shine again Tis night already in the lane

The settled clouds in ridges lie And some swell mountains calm and high

Clouds rack and drive before the wind In shapes and forms of every kind Like waves that rise without the roars And rocks that guard untrodden shores Now castles pass majestic bye And ships in peaceful havens lie These gone ten thousand shapes ensue For ever beautiful and new

The scattered clouds lie calm and still And day throws gold on every hill Their thousand heads in glorys run As each were worlds and owned a sun The rime it clings to every thing It beards the early buds of spring The mossy pales the orchard spray Are feathered with its silver grey

Rain drizzles in the face so small We scarce can say it rains at all

The cows turned to the pelting rain No longer at their feed remain But in the sheltering hovel hides That from two propping dotterels strides

The sky was hilled with red and blue With lighter shadows waking through Till beautiful and beaming day Shed streaks of gold for miles away

The linnet stopt her song to clean Her spreading wings of yellow green And turn his head as liking well To smooth the dropples as they fell

One scarce could keep one's path aright From gazing upward at the sight

The boys for wet are forced to pass The cuckoo flowers among the grass To hasten on as well they may For hedge or tree or stack of hay Where they for shelter can abide Safe seated by its sloping side That by the blackthorn thicket cowers A shelter in the strongest showers

The gardens golden gilliflowers Are paled with drops of amber showers

Dead leaves from hedges flirt about The chaff from barn doors winnows out And down without a wing to flye As fast as bees goes sailing bye The feather finds a wing to flye And dust in wirl puffs winnows bye

When the rain at midday stops Spangles glitter in the drops And as each thread a sunbeam was Cobwebs glitter in the grass

The sheep all loaded with the rain Try to shake it off in vain And ere dryed by wind and sun The load will scarcely let them run

The shepherds foot is sodden through And leaves will clout his brushing shoe The buttercups in gold alloyed And daiseys by the shower destroyed

The sun is overcast clouds lie And thicken over all the sky

Crows morn and eve will flock in crowds To fens and darken like the clouds So many is their cumberous flight The dull eve darkens into night

Clouds curl and curdle blue and grey And dapple the young summers day

Through the torn woods the violent rain Roars and rattles oer the plain And bubbles up in every pool Till dykes and ponds are brimming full

The thickening clouds move slowly on Till all the many clouds are one That spreads oer all the face of day And turns the sunny shine to grey

Now the meadow water smokes And hedgerows dripping oaks Fitter patter all around And dimple the once dusty ground The spinners threads about the weeds Are hung with little drops in beads Clover silver green becomes And purple blue surrounds the plumbs And every place breaths fresh and fair When morning pays her visit there

The day is dull the heron trails On flapping wings like heavy sails And oer the mead so lowly swings She fans the herbage with her wings

The waterfowl with suthering wings Dive down the river splash and spring Up to the very clouds again That sprinkle scuds of coming rain That flye and drizzle all the day Till dripping grass is turned to grey

The various clouds that move or lye Like mighty travellers in the sky All mountainously ridged or curled That may have travelled round the world

The water ruckles into waves And loud the neighbouring woodland raves All telling of the coming storm That fills the village with alarm

Ere yet the sun is two hours high Winds find all quarters of the sky With sudden shiftings all around And now the grass upon the ground And now the leaves they wirl and wirl With many a flirting flap and curl JOHN CLARE: A BIBLIOGRAPHICAL OUTLINE

_Works_

1

POEMS DESCRIPTIVE OF RURAL LIFE AND SCENERY. By John Clare, a Northamptonshire Peasant. London: Printed for Taylor and Hessey. 1820. 12mo. Pp. xxxii, 222. The second and third editions, 1820; excisions and alterations occur, but not in all copies. Fourth edition, 1821.

2

THE VILLAGE MINSTREL AND OTHER POEMS. Taylor and Hessey. 1821. Two volumes 12mo. Pp. xxviii, 216; vi, 211. Second edition, 1823. The two volumes were also, at a later date, bound in one cover lettered "Poetic Souvenir."

3

THE SHEPHERD'S CALENDAR; WITH VILLAGE STORIES, AND OTHER POEMS. Taylor. 1827. 12mo. Pp. viii, 238.

4

THE RURAL MUSE. London: Whittaker & Co. 1835. 12mo. Pp. x, 175.

_Biographies and Selections_

5

THE LIFE OF JOHN CLARE. By Frederick Martin, London and Cambridge: Macmillan & Co. 1865. Fcp. 8vo. Pp. viii, 301.

6

LIFE AND REMAINS OF JOHN CLARE. By J. L. Cherry. London: Frederick Warne & Co. Northampton: J. Taylor & Son. 1873. (Issued in the _Chandos Classics_, 1873-1877.) Fcap. 8vo. Pp. xiii, 349.

7

POEMS BY JOHN CLARE, selected and introduced by Norman Gale. With a Bibliography by C. Ernest Smith. Geo. E. Over, Rugby, 1901. Fcp. 8vo. Pp. 206.

8

POEMS BY JOHN CLARE, edited with an Introduction by Arthur Symons. Frowde, London, 1908. I2mo. Pp. 208.

9

NORTHAMPTONSHIRE BOTANOLOGIA. JOHN CLARE. By G. Claridge Druce. Pamphlet: no printer's name. 1912. (It includes a memoir, and a classification of the flowers described in Clare's poems.)

_Miscellaneous Clare Volumes_

10

FOUR LETTERS from the Rev. W. Allen, to the Right Honourable Lord Radstock, G.C.B., on the Poems of John Clare, the Northamptonshire Peasant. Hatchards' (1823). 12mo. Pp. 77.

11

THREE VERY INTERESTING LETTERS (two in curious rhyme) by the celebrated poets Clare, Cowper, and Bird. With an Appendix (Clare's "Familiar Epistle to a Friend"). ff.13. Charles Clarke's private press, Great Totham, 1837. 8vo. Only 25 copies printed. THE JOHN CLARE CENTENARY EXHIBITION CATALOGUE. Introduction by C. Dack. Peterborough Natural History Society, 1893. Pamphlet. Pp. viii, 28. An edition of 50 copies was printed on large paper.

_Clare's Contributions to Periodicals_

A detailed list of Clare's work in the magazines is a lengthy affair. His main connections were with the "London Magazine" (1821-1823), "European Magazine" (1825, 1826), "Literary Magnet" (1826, 1827), "Spirit and Manners of the Age" (1828, 1829), the publications of William Hone, "Athenaeum" (1831), "Englishman's Magazine" (1831), "Literary Receptacle" (1835). He contributed once or twice to the "Sheffield Iris," "Morning Post," and the "Champion"; and much of his best work seems to have been printed in local papers, such as the "Stamford Bee." The annuals often included short poems by him: the "Amulet," "Forget-Me-Not," "Friendship's Offering," "Gem," "Juvenile Forget-Me-Not," "Literary Souvenir," etc.

Clare's magazine writings are not always signed, and in the annuals his poems often bear no ascription except "By the Northamptonshire Peasant." After 1837 he appears not to have contributed poems to any journals other than local; though Cyrus Redding in the "English Journal," 1841, gives many of his later verses.

_Incidental Reference Volumes_

ALLIBONE, S. A.--Dictionary of English Literature.

ASKHAM, JOHN--Sonnets on the Months ("To John Clare," p. 185)--1863.

BAKER, Miss A. E.--Glossary of Northamptonshire Words and Phrases (Clare contributed)--1854.

CARY, H. F.--MEMOIR OF; ii. 52-53, 94-95--1847.

CHAMBERS, R.--Cyclopaedia of English Literature, ii. 386-390--1861.

DE QUINCZY, T.--London Reminiscences, pp. 143-145--1897.

DE WILDE, G.--Rambles Round About, and Poems: pp. 30-49--1872.

DICTIONARY OF NATIONAL BIOGRAPHY.

DOBELL, B.--Sidelights on Charles Lamb--1903.

ENCYCLOPAEDIA BRITANNICA.

(GALIGNANI'S)--Living Poets of England: pp.172-174--1827.

HALL, S. C.--Book of Gems: pp. 162-166--1838.
--A Book of Memories: pp. 107-109.

HEATH, RICHARD--The English Peasant: pp. 292-319--1893.

HOLLAND, J.--James Montgomery: iv. 96, 175--1854.

HOOD, E. P.--The Peerage of Poverty--1870.

HOOD, THOMAS--Works, ii. 374-377--1882.

LAMB, CHARLES--LETTERS (Ed. W. Macdonald), ii. 22--1903.

LOMBROSO, CESARE--The Man of Genius, 162, 205--1891.

MEN OF THE TIME--_earlier issues_.

MILES, A. H.--Poets and Poetry of the Nineteenth Century. Vol. "Keats to Lytton," pp. 79-106 (by Roden Noel)--1905.

MITFORD, M. R.--Recollections of a Literary Life. I. 147-163--1857.

REDDING, CYRUS--Fifty Years' Recollections: ii. 211--1858.
--Past Celebrities Whom I Have Known: ii. 132 _sq_.

STODDARD, R. H.--Under the Evening Lamp: pp.120-134--1893.

SYMONS, ARTHUR--The Romantic Movement in English Poetry: pp. 288-293--1908.

TAYLOR, JOHN--Bibliotheca Northantonesis--1869.

THOMAS, EDWARD--Feminine Influence on the Poets--1908.
--A Literary Pilgrim in England--1917.

WALKER, HUGH--The Literature of the Victorian Era: pp. 241-245--1913.

WILSON, JOHN--Recreations of Christopher North, i. 313-318--1842.

_Magazine Articles, &c._

1820 Analectic Magazine
June Antijacobin Review
April Eclectic Review
February Gentleman's Magazine
January, March London Magazine
July Monthly Magazine
March New Monthly
January, May New Times
February Northamptonshire County Magazine
May Quarterly Review

1821 October Ackermann's Repository
June British Critic
Eclectic Review
November European Magazine
Gentleman's Magazine
October Literary Chronicle
October Literary Gazette
November London Magazine
Monthly Review

1822 January Eclectic Review

1823 London Magazine

1827 June Ackermann's Repository
June Eclectic Review
John Bull
Literary Chronicle
March Literary Gazette
Morning Chronicle

1829 British Almanac and Companion

1831 November Blackwood's
1832 October The Alfred
Athenaeum
August True Sun

1835 July 25 Athenaeum
August Blackwood's
July 25 Literary Gazette
New Monthly

1840 June Athenaeum
June Times

1841 May English Journal
May Gentleman's Magazine

1852 August 28 Notes and Queries

1855 March 31 Illustrated London News

1857 November 21 London Journal
January Quarterly

1858 March 6 Notes and Queries

1860 Living Age (U.S.A.)

1863 October 31 Notes and Queries
Once a Week

1864 Annual Register
July Gentleman's Magazine
July St. James's Magazine

1865 June 17 Athenaeum
Chambers' Journal
August Eclectic Review
November 11 Leisure Hour
Spectator

1866 January Englishwoman's Domestic Magazine

1869 November Harper's New Monthly

1870 June 17 Literary World

1872 February 3 Notes and Queries
Overland (U.S.A.)

1873 April Athenaeum
Leisure Hour
January Literary World
Notes and Queries
Saturday Review, and many other
reviews of Cherry's volume

1874 October 17 Notes and Queries

1877 Living Age

1886 Northamptonshire Notes and Queries; 97.

1890 December 13 All the Year Round
September 6 Notes and Queries

1893 August, September Literary World

1901 July Current Literature (U.S.A.)
Freethinker
Monthly Review

1902 April Gentleman's Magazine

1908 December 17 Nation (New York)

1909 March Current Literature
T.P.'s Weekly

1913 January South Atlantic Quarterly

1914 October Yale Review

1915 May Fortnightly Review

1917 July 19 Dial (U.S.A.)

1919 September Cornhill Magazine

1920 February 22 Nation
March, April Athenaeum
May Oxford Outlook
July London Mercury
October Poetry Review

In addition to these references, valuable material is contained in such local papers as the Northampton Herald, Northampton Mercury, Stamford Mercury, Stamford Guardian, and the Peterborough Express, and the Peterborough Standard; particularly under the important dates 1820, 1864, 1873, and 1893.