Poems of the Middle Period: Volume I: 1822-1837

by John Clare

Clare's The Shepherd's Calendar has become the classic poem of English rural life and ceremony. It was accompanied, when first published, by other poems, pastorals, and verse-tales, all of which appear in the first two volumes of the series, along with many others which were not collected in the 1827 collection. Clare's first editors also tidied up and standardized his vocabulary, grammar, and spelling, but his original language has here been restored. By the late 1820's, Clare had developed his own distinctive idiom and had adopted a more powerful voice. These volumes make an important contribution to the ongoing reassessment of Clare as a major English poet.

This is the first of five volumes devoted to Clare's "middle period," between 1822 and 1837, arguably the years of his finest creativity. These Poems of the Middle Period , which will complete the nine volume series of Clare's work, reveal the poet at his best.

406 pages, Hardcover

First published August 29, 1996

About the author

John Clare was an English poet, in his time commonly known as "the Northamptonshire Peasant Poet", born the son of a farm labourer at Helpston (which, at the time of his birth, was in the Soke of Peterborough, which itself was part of Northamptonshire) near Peterborough. His poetry underwent a major re-evaluation in the late 20th century and he is often now considered to be one of the most important 19th-century poets.

For other authors with this name see: psychotherapist and artist John Clare, history educator John D. Clare and John Clare.