Gonville & Caius College Fellow Dr Sarah Houghton-Walker discusses John Clare’s poetic craft and reappraises ideas of self-image and identity in her new book, The Cambridge Companion to John Clare.
Sarah is the Founding Director of the Centre for John Clare Studies and has now edited a book which provides a window into the fascinating life of Clare, an early nineteenth-century labouring-class poet.
Essays within the book examine Clare’s work within a wide range of discourses, including ecocriticism, health studies, religion, natural history and aesthetics. In her introduction, Sarah offers a brief account of Clare’s biography and major life events. She looks in depth at his development of a unique poetic voice and argues in favour of his originality of posture and verse.
Sarah is the author of three monographs: Wordsworth's Poetry of Repetition: Romantic Recapitulation (2023), Representations of the Gypsy in the Romantic Period (2014) and John Clare's Religion (2009), and short biography of Clare is forthcoming in the near future.