The four volumes of John Clare's poetry that were published during his tragic life were so brutally edited, and sometimes even wilfully censored for political reasons that his work invited mainly curiosity and condescension from the literary world. Now that readers have a chance to re-evaluate Clare's poetry, the "peasant poet", "illiterate", "quaint" and "rustic" is emerging as a radical thinker and writer. John Lucas's unique volume reveals a knowing and articulate poet writing as an essentially oral artist - out of a subtle tradition of song as much as of poetry. Lucas champions Clare's art in a vital and fascinating book which tells of the collision between the cultural orthodoxy of print and the poet whose work was demeaned and damaged by the forces of the literary establishment.

About the Author
John Lucas has written many books including: The Literature of Change, English Poetry: From Hardy to Hughes, Romantic to Modern, and Englishness: Poetry and National Identity, 1688-1900. His celebrated study of Dickens, The Melancholy Man was first published in 1970 and re-published ten years later. He is himself a talented poet, winning the Aldeburgh Poetry Festival Award in 1990 and publishing Flying to Romania: A Sequence in Prose and Verse in 1992.


Book Information
ISBN 9780746307298
Author John Lucas
Format Paperback
Page Count 96
Imprint Liverpool University Press
Publisher Liverpool University Press
Weight(grams) 130g