A
VISION IN HILLY WOOD
I
have symbolised Clare’s spirit as a white bird free to fly where it chooses,
away from the “lust of earth below” towards “the glow of heaven’s flame” and
all within Hilly Wood that he knew well and visited often.
THE LAMENT OF SWORDY WELL
From
my reading of Clare’s poetry and prose I believe he identified himself closely
with the land and everything in it. This is vividly – even viscerally -
demonstrated in his poem The Lament of Swordy Well, which contains these four
lines –
“Im
swordy well a piece of land
Thats
fell upon the town
Who
worked me till I couldnt stand
And
crush me now Im down”
Clare
writes the poem in the first person and it is that which persuaded me to
emphasise this very personal identification by picturing the quarry as a piece
of meat that has been butchered for sale. It is gruesome, I admit but does
emphasise Clare’s personal relationship with the environment around Helpston
and is what I tried to get across as a visual metaphor for Clare’s feelings
about this gouging out of the earth’s body – his body - in the landscape.
A
CACOPHONY OF LEAVES
From
– ‘A Lare at Noon’
“&
on snug thickets sward at ease
Oerhung
wi many a bough
Of
hazel bush & oaken trees
I’ve
lain me down as now
While
swimming in my half closd eye
The
summers joys would seem
To
pass and pass unceasing bye
Like
pictures in a dream”
JOHN CLARE’S ‘BLUE ANEMONIE’
From – ‘Natural History Letter IX, March 25th
1825’
In this letter to James Hessey, John Clare
made reference to what he called the ‘blue anemonie’. He wrote – ““….you have often wished for a
blue Anemonie the Anemonie pulsitilis of botanists & can now send you some
for I have found some in flower today which is very early but it is a very
early spring the heathen mythology is fond of indul[g]ing in the metramorp[h]ing
in the memory of lovers and heroes into the births of flowers I could almost
fancy that this blue anemonie sprang from the blood or dust of the romans for
it haunts the Roman bank in this neighbourhood…”
DEEPINGS
CROWSONG
From
– ‘The Flitting’
“- the very crow
Croaks music in my native field”
ARUM
LILY
From
‘Natural History Letter X’
“I usd to creep among the blackthorn thickets & down the hedge sides on my hands and knees….. As soon as the sun lookd warm on the hedges & banks & wakend the daisey to open its golden eye; & the arums to throw up its fine green leaves…”
In 1993 I curated an exhibition of paintings in the Peterborough Museum and Art Gallery to commemorate the bi-centenary of John Clare's birth. I also painted this triptych for the show. It depicts - in the left supporter an ivy covered oak tree growing alongside the Helpston - Maxey Road. A track Clare took frequently on his trips to the Maxey Mill for his mother when fetching flour. The right supporter depicts an old willow growing alongside the River Gwash, near to where Clare courted his 'Patty' and the centre shows the largest of the Lolham Bridges upon which he stood with his publisher John Taylor, the only time Taylor visited Clare in Helpston.
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