The Early Poems of John Clare 1804-1822: Volume II: 002 (Oxford English Texts: John Clare) - Hardcover

Clare, John

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0198123159 ISBN 13: 9780198123156

Publisher: OUP Oxford, 1989

Synopsis

For the first time all Clare's early poems are brought together with all known variants, and with Clare's characteristic vocabulary, grammar, spelling, and punctuation preserved. Through this collection, ranging from juvenilia to the published poems that first established his reputation with Poems Descriptive of Rural Life and Scenery and The Village Minstrel, it becomes clear how many more poems Clare composed in these early years than have previously seen the light of day.

Strenuous efforts have been made to recover poems obliterated in some of Clare's first manuscripts, and the complete text of The Parish, his major satirical poem, is included. A glossary is provided for both volumes, together with extensive annotation. Clare's own dating of his first poems is employed and every attempt has been made to establish a reliable chronology.

This edition provides the first reliable basis for a new assessment of Clare's poetic growth, allowing his increasing assurance as a poet writing in a characteristic idiom of his own to be traced, and demonstrating how surprisingly early his individuality as a poet emerged.

About this title

Review

'it is marvellous to read the poems in their freshness, and the previously unpublished material reveals Clare as a poet of much greater variety than has sometimes been supposed' Country Life

'This is true scholarship: these volumes - whatever their price and weight - are long overdue.' Glasgow Herald

'Eric Robinson and David Powell have done everything humanly possible to ensure that Clare's work will never again be wholly at the mercy of fashions in taste' Times Literary Supplement

outstanding quality ... It will unquestionably be the authoritative text of Clare's early poetry for decades to come.' Tim Chilcott, West Sussex Institute of Higher Education, Review of English Studies, Vol.XLI, No.164, Nov '90

'Admirers of Clare, increased in number as a direct result of Eric Robinson's and his team's tireless efforts, will eagerly pore over the fine print of these texts, and just as eagerly await the next instalment of this mammoth project.' Mark Story, University of Birmingham, Notes and Queries, March 1991

Synopsis

(See long copy for Volume I)

Edition details

• Publisher: OUP Oxford
• Publication date: 1989
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0198123159
• ISBN 13: 9780198123156
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 850
• Editor: Robinson Eric, Powell David, Grainger Margaret