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Elective English—III Jayatee Bhattacharya, Lovely Professional University

Notes Unit 8: Love Lives beyond the Tomb by John Clare

CONTENTS
Objectives
Introduction

8.1 About the Author
8.1.1 Early Life
8.1.2 Early Poems

8.1.3 The Middle Years
8.1.4 Later Life
8.2 Poetry
8.2.1 Clare’s Poems about Love
8.3 Revival of Interest in the 20th Century

8.4 A Romantic Poet
8.5 Understanding John Clare
8.6 Love Lives beyond the Tomb – Poem

8.7 Reflections
8.8 Analysis of the Poem
8.9 Summary
8.10 Keywords
8.11 Review Questions

8.12 Further Readings

Objectives

After studying this unit, you will be able to:
Understand the life and times of the poet John Clare
Describe the writing style of John Clare

Understand the poem ‘Love Lives beyond the Tomb’

Introduction

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. 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”.

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