Summary
In a programme first broadcast in 2017, Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Northamptonshire poet John Clare who, according to one of Melvyn's guests Jonathan Bate, was 'the greatest labouring-class poet that England has ever produced'. Clare worked in a tavern, as a gardener and as a farm labourer in the early 19th century and achieved his first literary success with Poems Descriptive of Rural Life and Scenery. He was praised for his descriptions of rural England and his childhood there, and his reaction to the changes he saw in the Agricultural Revolution with its enclosures, displacement and altered, disrupted landscape. Despite poor mental health and, from middle age onwards, many years in asylums, John Clare continued to write and he is now seen as one of the great poets of his age.
With
Sir Jonathan Bate Provost of Worcester College, University of Oxford
Mina Gorji Senior Lecturer in the English Faculty and fellow of Pembroke College, Cambridge
and
Simon Kövesi Professor of English Literature at Oxford Brookes University
Producer: Simon Tillotson.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | This is the BBC. |
| 0:02.0 | Thanks for downloading this episode of In Our Time. |
| 0:05.0 | There's a reading list to go with it on our website. |
| 0:07.0 | And you can get news about our programs if you follow us on Twitter at BBC In Our Time. |
| 0:12.0 | I hope you enjoyed the programs. |
| 0:14.0 | Hello, John Claire is seen now as one of the great poets of the 19th century. |
| 0:18.0 | And according to one of our guests today, the greatest laboring class poet that England has ever produced. |
| 0:23.0 | He was born in Helpsson on the Brink of the Fence near Peterborough in 1793. |
| 0:28.0 | And knew the world around his cottage intimately. |
| 0:31.0 | His work describes nature and country life in an extraordinary level of detail, |
| 0:35.0 | that few, if any, have been called before or since. |
| 0:38.0 | And Claire also fires up against the threat to that countryside. |
| 0:41.0 | But this achieved fame in his late 20s. |
| 0:44.0 | And they often, they often with the condescension from the London literary world, |
| 0:48.0 | who made alliances for the man they called the North Hamptonshire Pesent Pert. |
| 0:52.0 | The last 24 years of his life were spent in what was then called a lunatic asylum. |
| 0:57.0 | With me to discuss the life and works of John Claire R. |
| 1:00.0 | So, Jonathan Bait, Provost of Worcester College University of Oxford. |
| 1:03.0 | Me and a Gorgie, senior lecturer in the English faculty and fellow Pembroke College Cambridge. |
| 1:09.0 | And Simon Koveshi, professor of English literature at Oxford Brooks University. |
| 1:14.0 | Jonathan Bait, what was the world into which John Claire was born? |
| 1:18.0 | Okay, so he's born 1793. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BBC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of BBC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.