SINCE Arthur Symons's selection of the poems of John Clare
was published in 1908, there has been no popular edition of the work of this poet. The two volumes edited by Mr. Edmund Blunden and Mr. Alan Porter in the 'twenties have long since been out of print, whilst Mr. Tibble's " double-decker," " monument " edition is not a convenient companion on a walk. Following upon his Poems of John Clare's Madness (1949), Mr. Grigson's selection for the new Muses Library is all the more timely and welcpme. Clare's apotheosis still proceeds apace. From peasant-minstrel—as the nineteenth century saw him—he has come to be generally recognised as England's most lyrical " naturalist " poet. In his introduc- tion to the present volume Mr. Grigson proves eager to establish even higher claims for Clare. Answering the contention (originally Mr. Middleton Murry's) that Clare did not develop his thought, Mr. Grigson seeks to demonstrate the working of a visionary process in the poet. The pro- ducts of this faculty he locates, for the most part, in 1844—Clare's third year in North- ampton Asylum. Of the mental condition in which these were composed Mr. Grigson writes, " Before his mind lost its power com- pletely, his ideas of nature, love, creative joy, freedom and eternity had developed and had informed that small number of poems which raise him so far above the mere ' naturalist' of his common reputation." Along with fifty-odd more objective pieces, this book contains forty-five poems written during Clare's years of madness.
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