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John Clare @johnclare.bsky.social · 4h

voice' is odd & this line sounds namby pambily '& therefore love I thee' the Scotch poets excel in song-writing because they take their images from common life where nature exists without affectation

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John Clare @johnclare.bsky.social · 4h

1824: Wrote a letter to Lord Radstock - Read some passages in the Poems of Tannahill some of his Songs are beautiful particularly 'Loudon's bonny woods & braes' 'We'll meet beside the dusky glen' & 'Jessey'. His poems are poor & appear as if they were written by another. The epithet 'virgin...

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John Clare @johnclare.bsky.social · 1d

there are no more Editor Scotts at present to check them The letter on Macadamizing is good the review on Walladmor is 30 pages long I wish De Quincey had better subjects for his genius tho there are some parts of the novel that seems alive with action.

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John Clare @johnclare.bsky.social · 1d

1824: Feel rather worse lookd over the Magazine for amusement, for Magazines are the best things in Literature to pass away a melancholy hour their variety & the freshness of their subjects whether good or bad never fail of amusement to reccomend them Blackwood's has had a hard hit on Taylor...

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John Clare @johnclare.bsky.social · 2d

him but I must enquire into its authenticity Capel Lofft did not improve on the account given by his brother George by altering it - Editors often commit this fault.

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John Clare @johnclare.bsky.social · 2d

1824: Began to learn a poor lame boy the common rules of arithmetic & find him very apt & willing to learn. Began an enquiry into the life of Bloomfield with the intention of writing one & a criticism on his genius & Writings. A fellow of the name of Weston pretended to know a great deal about...

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John Clare @johnclare.bsky.social · 3d

Collins's poems would not pay for the printing & the price Milton got for his Paradise Lost is well known so fashion's taste is still the same her outside only alters - out upon her foolery.

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John Clare @johnclare.bsky.social · 3d

1824: I have been dipping into The Miseries of Human Life. Here & there the petty troubles are whimsical enough & the thing a novel one which is sufficient to ensure success now & I understand it ran through a many editions & that the Authors made £1,500 by it clear profit so much for fashion...

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John Clare @johnclare.bsky.social · 4d

reasoning in favour of its object I have ever read I think a doubting Christian may be set aright at a first perusal & a reasoning Deist lose doubts sufficient to be half a Christian in some of the originals & a whole one ere he get to the end.

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John Clare @johnclare.bsky.social · 4d

Suckling &c &c but it was the booksellers' judgment that employd his pen & we know by experience that most of their judgments lye in their pockets so the Poets of Elizabeth are still in cobwebs & mystery read in the afternoon Erskine's Evidence of Revealed Religion & find in it some of the best...

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John Clare @johnclare.bsky.social · 4d

almost makes the mind disbelieve criticism & to fancy itself led astray by even the wisest of men I never take up Johnson's Lives but I regret his beginning at the wrong end first & leaving out those beautiful minstrels of Elizabeth had he forgot that there had been such poets as Spenser Drayton...

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John Clare @johnclare.bsky.social · 4d

1824: A wet day have finished the life of Savage in Johnson's Lives of the Poets it is a very interesting piece of biography but the criticisms are dictated by friendship that too often forgets judgment ought to be one of the company to leave this & turn to the life of Gray what a contrast it...

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John Clare @johnclare.bsky.social · 5d

chattering & stuffing 'that boast no more expression than a muffin'.

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John Clare @johnclare.bsky.social · 5d

Mayor's Feast on Thursday. It revives old reccolections. Poor fellow he is an odd one but still my reccolections are inclined in his favour. What a long way to come to the Mayor's feast, I would not go one Mile after it to hear the din of knives & forks & to see a throng of blank faces about me...

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John Clare @johnclare.bsky.social · 5d

1824: Observed today that the Swallows are all gone. When they went I know not. Saw them at the beginning of the week, a white one was seen this season by Mr Clark in the fields while out shooting. Patty has been to Stamford & brought me a letter from Ned Drury who came from Lincoln to the...

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John Clare @johnclare.bsky.social · 6d

come & be attended to for the sake of those left behind. I will insert them in the Appendix. Neglect is the rust of life that eateth it away & layeth the best of minds fallow & maketh them desert. Done nothing.

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John Clare @johnclare.bsky.social · 6d

1824: Very ill today & very unhappy my 3 Childern are all unwell had a dismal dream of being in hell. This is the third time I have had such a dream. As I am more & more convinced that I cannot recover, I will make a memorandum of my temporary concerns, for next to the Spiritual, they ought to...

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John Clare @johnclare.bsky.social · 7d

is the way of danger’. Men have been told this by their own consciences & they have partially or occasionally believed it, but still they walked on; too true. Recievd 3 letters from Van Dyk, Mrs Emmerson & Hessey. Done nothing.

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John Clare @johnclare.bsky.social · 7d

1824: Got a parcel from London Elton's Brothers & Allen's Grammar gifts of the authors & Erskine's Internal Evidences of Religion the gift of Lord Radstock one of my best friends a very sensible book. This passage stuck me I first opened 'To walk without God in the world is to walk in sin & sin...

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John Clare @johnclare.bsky.social · 8d

of middling stuff. In September 'Surrey' popt in another push for his opinion & in October the middling middle one is pushing a go-between again. When will it end. The article on Byron carries ignorance on the face of it. Recievd a letter from Cary.

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John Clare @johnclare.bsky.social · 8d

women had an inferior genius to men. In July 'Surrey' put up a little clever petition against it which read very well but proved nothing. In the 'Lion's Head' a little Unknown stuck a letter to the Editor on the same side. In August another popt a plea for female genius between the two opinions...

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John Clare @johnclare.bsky.social · 8d

1824: Recieved the London Magazine by my friend Henderson who brought it from town with him. A very dull no. The worst of magazines is waste-paper repetition for humbug is editor of them all in the June no. De Quincey had a paper on 'False Distinctions' which contended quite right enough that...

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John Clare @johnclare.bsky.social · 9d

here) calld Pride shall have a fall or the Twentieth Huzzar written by the Rev. G. Groby and now performing in the Theatre Royal Covent Garden with increased attraction & applause (advt. in the Times). In the Times Telescope they rechristened me Robert Clare: there went the left wing of my fame.

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John Clare @johnclare.bsky.social · 9d

1824: One can scarcely trust fame or credit in these days of misrepresentation and deception. This morning a PlayBill was thrown into my house with this pompous Blunder on the face of it.THEATRE MARKET DEEPING On Thursday Evening Oct. 7 1824 'Will be published thepopular new comedy (never acted...

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John Clare @johnclare.bsky.social · 10d

proving if it was long so I will insert them in the Appendix that my desires may be known & as I am anxious hope attended too tho it often happens otherwise there’s little trust in the world to leave faith behind us upon promises.

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