Annotated Content Historical Context - Detailed 20th Century Historical Map John Clare (13 July 1793 – 20 May 1864) was an English peasant poet of the Romantic school. He was the son of a laborer and began working on nearby fields when he was seven years old. Despite his limited access to literature, his lyrical talent, which emerged early, was fed by his parents' collection of folk ballads. Clare has established himself as a poet of nature, and his relationship with nature is to appreciate the worth of the natural world for human well-being. His poetry was re-evaluated significantly in the late twentieth century, and he is now widely regarded as one of the most prominent 19th-century poets best known for his writings on rural peasant life and nature. This edition, collection of Clare’s Poems ,was selected and introduced by Norman Gale and published in 1901. Sneak Peek TO THE CLOUDS O PAINTED clouds! sweet beauties of the sky, How have I view’d your motion and your rest When like fleet hunters ye have left mine eye, In your thin gauze of woolly-fleecing drest; Or in your threaten’d thunder’s grave black vest, Like black deep waters slowly moving by, Awfully striking the spectator’s breast With your Creator’s dread sublimity, As admiration mutely views your storms. And I do love to see you idly lie, Painted by heav’n as various as your forms, Pausing upon the eastern mountain high, As morn awakes with spring’s wood-harmony; And sweeter still, when in your slumbers sooth You hang the western arch o’er day’s proud eye: Still as the even-pool, uncurv’d and smooth, My gazing soul has look’d most placidly; And higher still devoutly wish’d to strain, To wipe your shrouds and sky’s blue blinders by, With all the warmness of a moon-struck brain,— To catch a glimpse of Him who bids you reign, And view the dwelling of all majesty.