author
John Clare
1793–1864
Known as one of England’s great nature poets, he wrote with unusual closeness about fields, birds, village life, and the damage caused when the countryside changed around him. His work, rooted in rural experience, feels vivid, observant, and deeply human.
3 Audiobooks
Poems Chiefly from Manuscript
by John Clare
Poems
by John Clare
About the author
Born in Helpston, Northamptonshire, on July 13, 1793, John Clare was the son of a farm labourer and grew up with little formal schooling. He worked in rural jobs from a young age, but became known for poetry that drew directly on the landscapes, speech, and daily life of the English countryside.
Clare’s writing is especially admired for its precise attention to nature and for the feeling with which he recorded the effects of enclosure and social change on country life. Although he achieved early success, much of his work was published unevenly during his lifetime, and many poems and prose pieces appeared only after his death.
He spent part of his later life struggling with mental illness and died on May 20, 1864, in Northampton. Over time, his reputation grew enormously, and he is now widely regarded as a major 19th-century poet whose work brings the natural world into focus with rare intimacy.