Peter Batten celebrates John Clare…

I am! yet what I am none cares or  knows,

My friends forsake me like a memory lost…

These lines are from the poem, “I am”, which, over the past sixty years, has been read and admired by more and more people. They were written by John Clare, known in his own time as ‘The Peasant Poet’.
Recently, I joined the John Clare Society which has been formed to encourage the understanding and appreciation of his poetry. At Cambridge University the English Faculty now has a special study group devoted to him. From these sources I hope to learn much more about his life and his poetry. Continue reading The Peasant Poet →