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.Representing local culture enables Clare to move from private to public poetwith greater integrity than he believes is shown by many writers. The Death ofDobbin (1808 1809) remarks of the local fame of a good horse that  The rural Museis glad at heart to nd /  Mong thy old friends thy memory still survive.58 As forthe horse, so for the poet.Clare s focus on the traditions, events and stories of thecommon people, and their methods of transmitting narratives, is both an undertakingto achieve the unstigmatized common fame that he so admired and an attempt tode ne the terms by which he was to be judged as a poet. The Authors Address to His Book (1819) deals with the problem of emerginginto the public sphere.Here Clare presents his book as the clownish-peasant sonof its author, with unpolished manners, who seeks preferment in a bourgeoisworld.He suggests that though the book is humbly produced, it will gain favour: Worth tho drest mean they ll still regard it.59 Common fame is achievable throughan  unaffected use of familiar subject matter:  things as old as England that hasoutlived centuries of popularity.60  To the Memory of Bloom eld (1823) suggeststhat Bloom eld s poetry is capable of achieving common fame.61 The  singingploughman (l.32), the  shepherd musing (l.29) and the  may day wild owers (l.30) all  live in the summer of (l.33) Bloom eld s  rural themes (l.33) and  greenmemorials (l.34).62 Bloom eld s poems are successful, Clare asserts, because hissubjects live and  ever may /shall nd a native  Giles beside his plough / Joiningthe sky larks song at early day (ll.35 7).While undeserving poets ride in  that gayship popularity (l.2)  sweet unassuming (l.15) Bloom eld, whose  rural themes(l.33) surpassed  the cobweb praise of fashion (l.35), did not subscribe to  Thedazzling fashions of the day (l.16).The fashionable poet, although he appears tobe popular, is metaphorically driven by  bladder puffs of common air (l.8) and hisfame  must share / A mortals fate (ll.12 13) and  lie / A dead wreck on the shore57 Ibid., 491, ll.79 84.58 Ibid., 85, ll.20 1.59 Ibid., 430, l.161.60 The Prose of John Clare, p.208.61 Clare,  To The Memory of Bloom eld, Middle Poems, IV, 181 2.62 Eric Miller suggests that  Simply by continuing to exist, those resources of land andrural culture which Bloom eld celebrated will eternize the poet whom they once inspired.Eric Miller,  Enclosure and Taxonomy in John Clare , Studies in English Literature 15001900, 40 (2000), 635 57 (p.640).126 The Romantics and the May Day Traditionof dark posterity (ll.13 14).Clare lamented that Bloom eld died in neglect andsuggested that this was  the common lot of genius.63Clare often writes of the road to achieving common fame as shrouded in shadow.The  Essay on Popularity suggests, sanguinely, that the  quiet progress of a namegaining its ground by gentle degrees in the world s esteem is the best living shadowof fame to follow.64  The Farewell (1820) sees a rustic leaving for the city in searchof  renown , and comments that in doing so he is  vainly pursuing the shadow ofpleasure.65 The shade of common fame is, frustratingly, also the shadow of obscurityin  The Author s Address to His Book (1819).Here, the speaker asks his book totell people how it left its author  moping / Thro oblivions darkness (ll.181 2).Ifthe book makes money, then its author might gain  that ne place ycleped fame.66 The Village Minstrel similarly situates the humble, though unsuccessful, rusticpoet  Far in the swail [shadow] , and in  To the Memory of James Merrishaw , thepoet gure aims to  snatch the schoolmaster s memory  from oblivions shade.67 To Obscurity (1818) again uses shade negatively.The unknown poet is  buriedbeneath  shade of deep disguise even though he is one of the  sons of Merit.68The shadow of obscurity enables the retention of integrity; merit, however, is notalways rewarded.This shadow is often contrasted with the light and sun of fame.Forexample, although William Blake s poetry was neglected, Clare asserts, his glorywill be kindled  like the sea / Shining in light ( Blake [1819 32]).69 Fame is  a sundisplaying / A solitary glory ( Fame [1824]), lingering behind in the world, andwhich will inevitably set.70 Clare reinforces the close connection between commonfame and obscurity in  Vanity of Fame (1825 26).This poem reveals Clare s doubtsabout achieving common fame, and his conviction of the certainty of its longevity.What boots the toil to follow common fameWith youths wild visions of anxiety& waste a life to win a feeble claimUpon her page which she so soon turns byeTo make new votaries room who share the sameRewards  & with her faded memories lieNeighbours to shadows  tis a sorry gameTo play in earnest with  to think ones nameBuoyant with visions of eternity& as familiar now in the worlds earAs owers & sunshine to the summers eyeShall be forgot with other things that were63 John Clare By Himself, p.194.64 The Prose of John Clare, p.210.My italics.65 Clare, Early Poems, I, 473, ll.12 13.66 Ibid., 431, l.192.67 Ibid., 56, l.35.68 Ibid., 386, ll.7 8.69 Clare, Middle Poems, IV, 289, ll.10 11.70 Ibid., 179, ll.3 4. A greater fame than poets ever knew 127& like old words grown out of use thrown byIn the confused lap of still obscurity71He laments here that while his name is known temporarily, it will soon be forgottenand wonders whether the toil after common fame is worth it.Clare s May DayIt is worth looking in more detail at an example of the kind of common custom thatinterested Clare, in order to particularize his encounter with the common sphere.Clare s perception of the decline of folkloric practices prompts his analysis of thespecial role of the poet.His poetry refers extensively to the local customs associatedwith May Day, such as festivities involving shepherds, milkmaids and sugar drinksmade from well water.These customs are, however, not always presented as alive.For instance, in Clare s early manuscript poem  Dobson and Judie or The Cottage(1808 19), the speaker recalls thatcustom did these sports dispelLong ere old dob or judie whereYet still posterity can tellAnd still the tale they love to hear.72Importantly, it is custom which caused these sports to disappear before Dobson andJudie were born.Clare acknowledges that customs change; nevertheless the songof the custom remains  still the tale they love to hear (l.204).These events haveachieved common fame through the songs that recall them.The anonymous echo ofthe custom, retained in a song sung by villagers, is the kind of poetry Clare impliesshould be aspired to, and it circulates in the common sphere.His attitude to poetrywhich circulates in the bourgeois public sphere (i.e.poetry that recalls customs) isslightly different, as I will show when I come to discuss  The Village Minstrel.Allof Clare s poetry on May Day falls into the latter category.Before I come to these issues I want to rst outline Clare s personal experience ofthe May Day festival [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]