HALP ME!

[Lozzer]

Is anyone familiar with John Clare's poem, and if so, what does that 19th century emo faggot mean by "Like shadow in love's frenzied stifled throes"?

[Xamonas Chegwé]

This poem records directly and intensely the feeling of alienation.

It asserts, both in its title and in the repetitions of "I am" throughout, the definite, emphatic fact of self, but at the same time constantly undermines this by drawing attention to the difference between the life merely lived as existence, - "And yet I am, and live" - and the life fulfilled in friendship and love, sense of order, place and purpose.

Thus the poem expresses not only a mental state, but the pastoral longing of the last stanza has the social and political significance of the deeply felt need for country and community, destroyed by greed and enclosure.


...or some shit.

(I just googled "John Clare I am" and found a ton of similar bollocks. Don't students know how to cheat anymore these days?)

[Lozzer]

This poem records directly and intensely the feeling of alienation.

It asserts, both in its title and in the repetitions of "I am" throughout, the definite, emphatic fact of self, but at the same time constantly undermines this by drawing attention to the difference between the life merely lived as existence, - "And yet I am, and live" - and the life fulfilled in friendship and love, sense of order, place and purpose.

Thus the poem expresses not only a mental state, but the pastoral longing of the last stanza has the social and political significance of the deeply felt need for country and community, destroyed by greed and enclosure.


...or some shit.

(I just googled "John Clare I am" and found a ton of similar bollocks. Don't students know how to cheat anymore these days?)

I don't cheat, I just need that simile explaining. I fucking love the poem, just never grasped the simile.

[Xamonas Chegwé]

This poem records directly and intensely the feeling of alienation.

It asserts, both in its title and in the repetitions of "I am" throughout, the definite, emphatic fact of self, but at the same time constantly undermines this by drawing attention to the difference between the life merely lived as existence, - "And yet I am, and live" - and the life fulfilled in friendship and love, sense of order, place and purpose.

Thus the poem expresses not only a mental state, but the pastoral longing of the last stanza has the social and political significance of the deeply felt need for country and community, destroyed by greed and enclosure.


...or some shit.

(I just googled "John Clare I am" and found a ton of similar bollocks. Don't students know how to cheat anymore these days?)

I don't cheat, I just need that simile explaining. I fucking love the poem, just never grasped the simile.

You can't just take each line in isolation. The line refers to the 'woes' mentioned 2 lines before. It often helps to dispense with the line by line structure and write a poem out as if it were prose.

I am the self-consumer of my woes — they rise and vanish in oblivious host, like shadows in love's frenzied, stifled throes

My initial take is that his woes (read feelings of depression) are intruding into his feelings of love (physical love? Or emotional? Perhaps both?) hence they are like shadows, darkening those feelings.

The contradictions in the adjectives chosen (frenzied stifled) are interesting - perhaps he's banging his missus but they're trying to keep it quiet so as not to wake the kids? Or, more seriously, perhaps this reflects the mores of the time? The physical frenzy coupled with societal restraint - after all, they are SINNING!

That's one possibility - go google "John Clare I Am Commentary" and you'll find hundreds more.

[Lozzer]

This poem records directly and intensely the feeling of alienation.

It asserts, both in its title and in the repetitions of "I am" throughout, the definite, emphatic fact of self, but at the same time constantly undermines this by drawing attention to the difference between the life merely lived as existence, - "And yet I am, and live" - and the life fulfilled in friendship and love, sense of order, place and purpose.

Thus the poem expresses not only a mental state, but the pastoral longing of the last stanza has the social and political significance of the deeply felt need for country and community, destroyed by greed and enclosure.


...or some shit.

(I just googled "John Clare I am" and found a ton of similar bollocks. Don't students know how to cheat anymore these days?)

I don't cheat, I just need that simile explaining. I fucking love the poem, just never grasped the simile.

You can't just take each line in isolation. The line refers to the 'woes' mentioned 2 lines before. It often helps to dispense with the line by line structure and write a poem out as if it were prose.

I am the self-consumer of my woes — they rise and vanish in oblivious host, like shadows in love's frenzied, stifled throes

My initial take is that his woes (read feelings of depression) are intruding into his feelings of love (physical love? Or emotional? Perhaps both?) hence they are like shadows, darkening those feelings.

The contradictions in the adjectives chosen (frenzied stifled) are interesting - perhaps he's banging his missus but they're trying to keep it quiet so as not to wake the kids? Or, more seriously, perhaps this reflects the mores of the time? The physical frenzy coupled with societal restraint - after all, they are SINNING!

That's one possibility - go google "John Clare I Am Commentary" and you'll find hundreds more.

Thanks, but he was institutionalised. You don't get much fanny in those places, I'm told.

[Xamonas Chegwé]

I am not that familiar with John Clare's biography - but i doubt he was institutionalised for his entire life. I am pretty sure that he was familiar with shagging at some point!

[Lozzer]

I am not that familiar with John Clare's biography - but i doubt he was institutionalised for his entire life. I am pretty sure that he was familiar with shagging at some point!

He wrote I am during a period in an asylum. So there's both physical, and emotional isolation; the language conveys both, accordingly. I'M GONNA' WRITE THAT SHIT!

[Xamonas Chegwé]

I am not that familiar with John Clare's biography - but i doubt he was institutionalised for his entire life. I am pretty sure that he was familiar with shagging at some point!

He wrote I am during a period in an asylum. So there's both physical, and emotional isolation; the language conveys both, accordingly. I'M GONNA' WRITE THAT SHIT!

And during this period in an asylum he was unable to remember things that had happened previously?

Why does the fact that he wrote it at that point of his life mean that it must be about that point in his life and cannot reference any other period, including thiose where he might have given his wife a bloody good seeing to?

You will find very few poems (of any worth) that are solely about one thing.

[Lozzer]

And during this period in an asylum he was unable to remember things that had happened previously?

No, he was mental.

Why does the fact that he wrote it at that point of his life mean that it must be about that point in his life and cannot reference any other period, including thiose where he might have given his wife a bloody good seeing to?

It was the 19th century, the man and his poetry were sexually restrained.

[Xamonas Chegwé]

And during this period in an asylum he was unable to remember things that had happened previously?

No, he was mental.

Why does the fact that he wrote it at that point of his life mean that it must be about that point in his life and cannot reference any other period, including thiose where he might have given his wife a bloody good seeing to?

It was the 19th century, the man and his poetry were sexually restrained.

Wrong! The man was as sexually charged as any other. What he couldn't do was express his sexuality and sexual desires openly. That is one of the reasons that poetry was so popular at the time - it allows the expression of 'unmentionable' things, couched in metaphor and allegory. Hints and the half-spoken - that is often at the core of poetry.

[Lozzer]

And during this period in an asylum he was unable to remember things that had happened previously?

No, he was mental.

Why does the fact that he wrote it at that point of his life mean that it must be about that point in his life and cannot reference any other period, including thiose where he might have given his wife a bloody good seeing to?

It was the 19th century, the man and his poetry were sexually restrained.

Wrong! The man was as sexually charged as any other. What he couldn't do was express his sexuality and sexual desires openly. That is one of the reasons that poetry was so popular at the time - it allows the expression of 'unmentionable' things, couched in metaphor and allegory. Hints and the half-spoken - that is often at the core of poetry.

Yes...this is true. Smart bastard...