Week 3-Clare and Sinclair
Apologies for late circulation of excerpts from Sinclair's /Edge of the
Orison,/which I'll place outside my office door tomorrow - these are mainly
adjunct to a reading of Clare's "Journey Out of Essex," as Sinclair retraces
Clare's steps from Epping Forest to Helpston. We'll focus this week's
discussion on a continuation of last week's theoretical considerations as
applied to a reading of Clare as prototypical eco-social poet, in engagement
with Williams.
For Clare, it may help to focus on the following:
- From 'Poems written in Epping Forest and Northampton Asylum': 'The Gispy
Camp' (278); 'Child Harold' (279); 'Don Juan' (318); 'Spring' (328);
'Sonnet' (345); 'Spring' (356); 'I Am' (361); 'Sonnet: I Am' (361-362); 'The
Autumn Wind' (372-373); 'Clock a Clay' (391-392); 'Autumn' (405); 'Birds:
Why are ye Silent?' (415-416); 'The Yellowhammer' (417); 'The Maple Tree'
(423); 'Fragment' (427); 'John Clare' (427)
From the prose: '[Journey Out of Essex]' (432-437); '[Apology for the
Poor]' (445-446); '[The Poor Man vs. the Rich Man]' (450-451)
And from the earlier poems, look esp at 'The Mores' (167-169)
I've attached an article on C19 enclosures in England that fills in more
of the context that Williams engages.
Re Sinclair, note the following event - a screening of a new film inspired
by his Clare book, taking place at Oxford Brookes University on Oct. 31st:
http://www.brookes.ac.uk/about-brookes/events/by-our-selves/