Clare response

Dear Romanticists,

We return now to discussing working-class poetry, though this time we will focus on one poet in particular.  John Clare is probably the most famous of our period’s self-educated authors.  His parents were essentially illiterate and Clare himself had no formal education after the age of 11 when he left school to work full-time as an agricultural laborer.  

Clare’s everyday life was bound up in the land on which he lived.  He was thus poised to become one of the great voices of the Agricultural Revolution, a series of technological advances and land reforms that changed the face of British countryside.  Acts of enclosure, for example, re-distributed lands that had been held in common, in some cases since the Middle Ages.  Trees and hedges were uprooted, fields plowed up, and marshlands drained.  For the first time in living memory, the land that so sharply informed rural identity radically changed. 

Much of Clare’s poetry records and responds to the destruction of the land he had known and the corresponding loss of rural cultural that went with it.  That is, like all of our Romantic poets, Clare was fixated on the concept of loss.  His loss, however, is rooted specifically in specific flora and fauna, agrarian traditions, and a pre-industrial relationship between people and the land they worked.  Until Thomas Hardy arrives on the scene at the opposite end of the century, no one will speak with more authority or more agony about the British countryside and the cultural memories and practices that once flourished there.

Read the assigned poems in our anthology; the other two listed on the syllabus can be found here:

The Skylark

First Love

Enjoy this work inspired by The Shepherd's Calendar by the contemporary artist from Clare's native Northamptonshire, Peter Newcombe. 

Shelley responses

Dear Romanticists,

            Two of the most innovative and influential theories of poetry come from the Romantic period.  One is the “Preface” to Wordsworth and Coleridge’s Lyrical Ballads.  The other is “A Defence of Poetry.”  Like the “Preface,” the “Defence” lays out its author’s most deeply held beliefs about what makes good poetry and what role poetry plays in the wider social world.  You will notice some common interests between the two, for example the importance of individual perception and imagination, and the spontaneous nature of poetic inspiration.  Read, then, for what Shelley adds to Wordsworth’s (and Coleridge’s) ideas.  For one thing, we know that one particularly Shellean tactic is the string of metaphors, so you might consider the importance of metaphors in his essay.

Also read the assigned poems; we will be examining these to see how Shelley’s poetic theory plays out in practice. 

Happy reading,

Prof. M.

Some skylarking for your amusement, by the British Romantic painter and writer Samuel Palmer.

Hemans responses

Hello Romanticists,

Hope you are having or have had a good and restful holiday.  Allow me to welcome you back by talking about the Catherine Robson text I asked you to read.  As you read the section of her chapter, please consider the following.  First, Robson is an exceptionally skilled writer and critic and Heartbeats models several important literary-critical moves that you may wish to develop (defining a gap in the field, historicizing a previously unexamined concept). 

Second, Robson’s reevaluation of Hemans is part of a larger movement of challenging of the literary canon, a movement in which our class is also engaged.  Robson thus provides a useful model for our inquiries, as well as important background.  In particular, Robson highlights Hemans’s immense popularity.  More than just a best-selling author, Hemans was a cultural phenomenon whose works were seen as articulating the core values of British identity.  That iconic status makes her similar to Byron, despite their ideological differences.

For next Tuesday, read the assigned Hemans poems, focusing on those from her collection Records of Woman.  You might consider the parallels or contrasts between her historical “heroes” and Byron’s Childe Harold and Don Juan.  Post by noon on Monday (April 13).

Happy reading,
Prof. M.

P. S.: Enjoy a couple "Casabianca" artifacts:

Cover illustration,"Casabianca" set to music, nineteenth century.

Phillips Cigarettes collector's card from their of "Famous Boys" series, 1924.