British Romanticism: Percy Shelley Vs. John Clare

Caitlin Lindsey
British Romanticism
12/2/15
Final Assignment
Shelley v. Clare
The one major difference between Percy Shelley and John Clare as people is the fact that Shelly was an educated man and John Clare did not receive an education from anyone save for himself. As a self-taught man from the countryside, Clare definitely has a different style in writing than Shelley. Where Percy Shelley’s style is more complex in detail and filled with metaphors, Clare’s is full of simple details and straighter to the point. That is not to say that one is more gifted in poetry than the other, just different in how they want their writing to say.
In Percy Shelley’s “Stanzas Written in Dejection”, he describes in full detail the atmosphere of a perfect day.
Shelley implies that no matter how much harmony there may exist between nature and man, man must be in a condition to be able to find pleasure in that harmony. John Clare’s “I Am!” is written in the same thought of loneliness and dejection, but does not do so in the way Shelley did in “Dejection”.
In the first part of the poem, Clare tells that nobody cares about him anymore and that his friends have abandoned him. He suffers his griefs alone; he is like "vapours" tossed into some noisy, place full of waking dreams that looks like some "shipwreck". This is all too much for the speaker, and he decides he wants to go somewhere where no man has ever gone. He says he wants to be with God, so he clearly wants to die.
It is no surprise for a poem with a title like "I Am," but the setting here is quite self-centered. John Clare says it best, in fact: "I am the self-consumer of my
He does not describe the scenery around him and how beautiful it may or may not be like Shelley did in “Dejection”. Clare is straight to the point and concise in his thoughts, even if at the time he was in an asylum. Like Shelley, Clare feels hopeless and wants to die, and they use their own styles to give readers a glimpse into what is going on inside their heads. The similarities in content and tone are clear, they were both most likely very depressed at the time this poem was written and mention loneliness and longing for companionship. The scenery, although Clare’s is more self-reflective, do share the thought of the ocean in both poems. But the striking difference is their style of writing, as stated before. Clare takes on a more simplistic way of telling his woes than Shelley, who had a knack for detailed metaphors and descriptions. Clare is more relatable, in my opinion. He gives his writings no room for interpretation and uses words that do not necessarily have double meanings. His lack of a proper education gave him an edge against Shelley; Clare is more human, and more understanding of how people think and relate to one another. While Shelley’s poem is beautiful to read, I do not resonate with it as well as Clare’s. They both do their job in telling how lonely they are, but Clare’s to-the-point way of writing keeps me focused on his mind more than Shelley, who describes