CLARE, John.

£2,500 · Offered by Peter Harrington · No longer available

The Rural Muse. First edition of the poet's final collection, scarce in the original cloth. The book includes some of Clare's best-known poems, such as "The Skylark" and "The Yellowhammer's Nest".The son of a "thresher and local wrestler" (ODNB), Clare was inspired to write poetry after reading James Thomson's The Seasons, and he offered his first fruits to a local bookseller in 1819, in order to forestall his parents' eviction from their home. The result, Poems Descriptive of Rural Life and Scenery, became something of a publishing sensation and caught the attention of a reading public fascinated by the idea of "inspiration" and its sources in nature. Clare, whose poetic talents seemingly sprang from nowhere, was soon celebrated as an English Robert Burns. He underwent a re-evaluation in the 20th century and is now "rightly acknowledged by many to be England's finest nature poet... [and] a writer of remarkable imagination and diversity" (ODNB)."The experience of reading The Rural Muse is akin to a walk with Clare through wood and field: you think that you are encountering commonplaces, but suddenly the sharp eye of the poet draws your attention to a little thing hidden in a secret place. And he finds the words to transform the ordinary into something magical" (Bate, p. 378).

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