| Summary: | Rather than dividing John Clare's poetry into two biographically-determined categories of "pre-asylum" and "asylum" poetry, and arguing in favour of one category over the other, this study takes it as an organic whole and follows its development through three chronological periods, Early, Middle and Later. While still employing eighteenth-century models and themes, Clare demonstrated in his Early Period an unmistakable individuality. This was revealed through the originality of his nature imagery, through his use of highly expressive language and through his bold experiments with various poetic forms. During the Middle and Later periods, the personal voice was asserted in poems of intense and pure lyricism. Although Clare wrote about a wide variety of subjects, he showed from the start a special concern about the themes of nature, woman and poetry. It is in terms of the continuity of that concern and the move towards fusing those three themes into one artistic vision that the development of his poetry is discussed throughout this study. Since the criticism of Clare has generally been burdened by bio-graphical details, every effort has been made to make this study as strictly critical as possible. However, biographical details are brought in as "introductory'' or ''background" remarks when they are felt to be of crucial value to illuminate the poetry itself.
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