John Clare, "To John Clare"
John Clare, "To John Clare"
Poem by John Clare (1793 – 1864). Letterpress printed in Bell type on Mohawk Superfine Paper. Collagraph by Jinny Pearce. 7 x 11 inches. 80 copies printed, limited stock.
John Clare (1793-1864) was an English poet, the son of a farm labourer, who came to be known for his celebratory representations of the English countryside and his lamentation of its disruption. His poetry underwent a major re-evaluation in the late 20th century and he is often now considered to be among the most important 19th-century poets. His biographer Jonathan Bate states that Clare was "the greatest labouring-class poet that England has ever produced. No one has ever written more powerfully of nature, of a rural childhood, and of the alienated and unstable self". (Source: Wikipedia)
"What distinguished Clare is an unspectacular joy and a love for the inexorable one-thing-after-anotherness of the world." — Seamus Heaney