Archive foroctubre, 2010

Introduction

This is a paper about the forgotten author John Clare (1793 – 1864).

My choice was not due to any special reason,it was just because I didn’t want to repeat the authors that had been already chosen, but then reading a little about him I realized what type of character I was dealing with. I mean, he was one of the poets with the worse economic and social situations. He was son of a farm labourer, and so he had a rural way of living. He worked as farm labourer like his father and at a tavern, so nobody would expect that he would became a famous writer with time.

But he liked poetry and he started to write on his own some poems. He used to write about nature, as a good Romantic poet, and besides, he left most poems unfinished. However he didn’t succed until 1820, with Poems Descriptive of Rural Life and Scenery. And then when he was sent to an assylum, not only he did not stop writing but he achieved even more success. But honestly he was not recognized as he has been much after in the 20th; he is said to be the best rural poet, according to many people.

This is just a very superficial image about him, but if you want you can see much more in the section of biographies, in which I included the most suitable biographies I found.

It is said that many authors of the time had problems with their sponsors and publishers, and obviuosly John Clare was not an exception. There has been a lot of controversy around this topic It is not an easy issue to raise, but it has to be mentioned, because it is very important. So I also added an article that perfectly explains how the situation was and I made a comment on it.

If you are interested in his poetry you can also visit the web I have linked. And nowadays with the current technologies we are used to, you can listen to the poems not only through the common page youtube, where you can find for example: “I am“, or ” The isntinct of hope“, but also in other websites, as LibriVox.

Doing a process of assimilation of all the information I have searched, I ended up in a conclusion.

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Not so far from Romantics

“La conciencia del Yo como entidad autónoma y, frente a la universalidad de la razón dieciochesca, dotada de capacidades variables e individuales como la fantasía y el sentimiento.

La primacía del Genio creador de un Universo propio, el poeta como demiurgo.

Valoración de lo diferente frente a lo común lo que lleva una fuerte tendencia nacionalista.

El liberalismo frente al Despotismo Ilustrado.

La de la originalidad frente a la tradición clasicista y la adecuación a los cánones. Cada hombre debe mostrar lo que le hace único.

La de la creatividad frente a la imitación neoclásica.

La de la obra imperfecta, inacabada y abierta frente a la obra perfecta, concluida y cerrada.”

 

“Frente a la afirmación de lo racional, irrumpió la exaltación de lo instintivo y sentimental. «La belleza es verdad». También representó el deseo de libertad del individuo, de las pasiones y de los instintos que presenta el «yo», subjetivismo e imposición del sentimiento sobre la razón.”

http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romanticismo

 

So, we are not so different from the romantics. Maybe not in shape but in content there are too many similarities that seems to me very curious, at least. Nowadays the main worry of people is to find true love. They are in love with the perfect girl, and they want she to love them, in the same way they do. Not so far from Romantics. We look for freedom, we don’t like to be ruled by anyone, we want to be ourselves without anybody ordering us what we have to do. We like independence. The same as Romantics.

Creativity and originality are highly valued. Don’t want to repeat the same again and again.

To follow our instinct is something that we would like to do much more often. And of course, we like to differenciate each one as a completely different person from the other one next to you.

Living in a time, in a context, and however… dreaming with a utopic situation, an ideal world. Someone who wants a better world, and who thinks that it is possible. Maybe this person we are talking about has had distinct tags along time, such as “romantic”, “hippie”, or whatever, but the thing is that this type of person already exists, and there is not only one, I think we are a lot.

Despite the time, we all have the same aspirations as a lot of years ago had they. So, it is a reflection that we all should do, in order to realise that there is anything more important than life and love. There is no money that could buy happiness, and no power that could fill emptiness. Like “The Beatles” said: All you need is love.

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