期刊名称：Rupkatha Journal on Interdisciplinary Studies in Humanities
电子版ISSN：0975-2935
出版年度：2011
卷号：3
期号：4
页码：425-436
出版社：Rupkatha Journal on Interdisciplinary Studies in Humanities
摘要：The paper seeks to explore the condition of a so called mad poet John Clare, (1793-1864) who occupies a marginal place in the history of English literature despite the fact that he was a noted figure in the literary canon when his first book of poems was published. Clare was noted for his rural poetry but strangely enough he gradually went out of fashion. In an age which apotheosized poets and identified them as immensely powerful entities, Clare suffered in silence for twenty seven years in an asylum where he ultimately met with his death. During his confinement he wrote more than 300 poems which survive as glimpses of his traumatic life. Pain sharpened his voice and refined his vision although most of his poems remained unpublished until his death. Modern critics are trying to analyse the asylum poems of Clare which hardly appear as works of a mind out of control. Intheir structural integrity and coherence of thought they leave us in doubt about notions of sanity and insanity.
