On the week's reading:
The excerpt from Sinclair's Edge of the Orison updates Clare's "Journey Out of Essex," as Sinclair retraces Clare's steps from Epping Forest to Helpston. We'll focus discussion mainly on a continuation of last week's theoretical considerations as applied to a reading of Clare as prototypical eco-social poet, in engagement with Raymond Williams’s reading.
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)
Re Williams, The Country and the City is an essential contribution to the ecocritical canon, but for our purposes this week we'll be focusing on the introduction, "Country and City," and Chapter 13, "The Green Language" - though note as well the important chapter "Enclosures, Commons and Communities."