Wendy Cope on John Clare

Great Lives

BBC

Documentary, History, Society & Culture

4.2 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 5 May 2015

⏱️ 28 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

"John Clare, I cried last night for you" wrote Wendy Cope in a poem dedicated to the earlier poet, who overcame monumental setbacks such as a poverty-stricken upbringing and a long struggle with mental illness. However, Clare managed to write some of the most sensitive poetry in the English language. At one point he was known as "the English Robert Burns" but then his fame dropped away and many people now remember him solely for his cri de coeur, "I Am."

Expert witness is John Clare's biographer, Sir Jonathan Bate.

Producer Christine Hall

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in May 2015

Transcript

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0:00.0	You're about to listen to a BBC podcast and I'd like to tell you a bit about the
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0:20.0	and tell amazing compelling stories that really get behind the headlines.
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0:39.8	Great Lives is a download from Radio 4. We hope you enjoy what you're about to hear.
0:45.4	The village of Glinton near Peterborough hit the national news in 2004 when British Telecom proposed
0:52.0	building a 15-meter-high mobile phone mask there.
0:56.0	People were unhappy about this. Not only would it ruin the look of their village,
1:00.0	but it would spoil this striking 15th century spire on their church.
1:05.2	400 residents signed a petition, but more importantly they fought BT by sending to the chief
1:11.2	executive a poem,
1:13.0	Ode to Glinton Spire.
1:15.0	It dates back to the early 19th century
1:18.0	and had been written by John Clare,
1:20.0	the subject of today's great lives.
1:22.0	And it worked.
1:23.6	B.T. changed their minds and scrapped the mast.
	...

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