Page 107 - DENG202_ELECTIVE_ENGLISH_III

Elective English—III

Notes Love lives beyond
The tomb, the earth, the flowers, and dew.

Self Assessment

State whether the following statements are true or false:

1. Jonathan Bate was John Clare’s …………………….
2. The …………………… is the last work of Clare.
3. Clare died on …………………… and was buried in St Botolph’s churchyard.
4. Say what is love is another short poem that deals with Clare’s loss of …………………….
5. Clare’s first volume, ……………………, appeared in 1820.

8.9 Summary

John Clare 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.

In his time, Clare was commonly known as “the Northamptonshire Peasant Poet”.
In his early life, he struggled to find a place for his poetry in the changing literary fashions
of the day. He also felt that he did not belong with other peasants.

John Clare was a Romantic’s dream come true. While Coleridge and Wordsworth had
declared that modern poetry should speak with the voice of the rural poor, they could
only mimic that voice.
Clare said that Keats ‘often described nature as she appeared to his fancies and not as he
would have described her had he witnessed the things he described’.

Clare has often been compared with Thomas Hardy, and like him, he has composed some
verses which seem little more than childish ditties; whereas some of his poems not only
deal with profound subject matter but feature majestic lines, precise diction, evocative
imagery and elevated and sustained argument.

In Love Lives Beyond the Tomb, a sense of the endurance of love is created; an emotion that
the speaker suggests can defy even death.
Love Lives Beyond the Tomb is one that is undated, yet, based on handwriting, subject and
paper, Blunden and Porter place it after 1860.
8.10 Keywords

Acerbic: Something that is sharp and forthright.
Autodidact: A person who has self-studied to achieve a status in life.
Malnutrition: The medical condition that arises due to lack of nutrition by not getting enough
to eat, eating nutritious food.
Misogynist: A person who dislikes or is extremely prejudiced against women.
Redolent: To be strongly suggestive or reminiscent of something.

Volition: The faculty and power of using one’s will.

102 LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY