Nature, Identity, and Emotion: Comparing two Peasant Poets

John Clare and Robert Burns occupy a distinctive position in the Romantic tradition, deeply rooted in the rural and lived experiences of ordinary men and women. Both Clare and Burns have been celebrated for their evocative manner of portraying nature and rural life as well as the emotional depth of their texts. Their works resonate with thematic similarities such as love, loss, and changing times explored through the lens of common people and a society closer to nature. The following analysis will highlight their contributions, similarities, differences, and legacy within and beyond Romanticism as well as British Literature. For the purposes of our comparative analysis, we will take five poems from each poet and examine them and the contexts and study surrounding them. 

John Clare (1793-1864), known popularly as one of the Romantic poets, is celebrated for his poetry depicting the English countryside as well as an emotional connection to nature. Clare was born in Northamptonshire, United Kingdom, into humble circumstances which limited his formal education. This did not affect his admiration for nature and the oral tradition of poetry, which often explored themes like love, impacts of industrialisation and rural communities. In 1820, his first major collection, Poems Descriptive of Rural Life and Scenery was published to a positive reception, making his position as a poet known. With his next work, The Village Minstrel in 1821, his distinctive style which involved growing descriptive skills was illustrated. A later work, The Shepherd’s Calendar (1827), contained an interpretation of pastoral life from his lived experiences of rural life, taking inspiration from Edmund Spenser and positioning it in his reality. The poems by Clare that we have examined for this comparative analysis are "I Am!", "First Love", "The Badger", "All Nature Has a Feeling", and "The Secret”. 

Robert Burns (1759-1796), the “Bard of Ayrshire”, also came from humble beginnings, the eldest son of a family in farming in the west coast of Scotland. Unlike Clare, Burns was formally educated in literature, which later went on to influence his themes in writing. He is celebrated as a significant figure in Scottish literature with explorations of themes such as love, nature, and social justice. Burns is regarded as a precursor to the Romantic movement. His writings revealed an appreciation for Scottish life as well as the dialect. Burns’ death at the age of 37 did not diminish his influence, with translations spreading his legacy over countries and centuries. Burns possessed a linguistic fluidity which let him switch between the English and Scottish dialects, a key feature of his writing skills. The poems by Burns that we have picked for this comparative analysis are: "A Red, Red Rose", "To a Mouse", "Tam o' Shanter", "Ae Fond Kiss", and "My Heart's in the Highlands". 

A brief overview would already give the reader a clue about how these two writers might have coincided thematically. Both display an appreciation for nature as well as their respective communities. Clare’s poetry links nature and human emotion and action. An example of this is in “All Nature Has a Feeling”, where the link between emotion and nature is explicit: “All nature has a feeling: wood, meadow, stream...”. He also views humans as either intruders or caretakers by mirroring the vulnerability of the rural to the state of wildlife in “The Badger”. His depiction of landscapes is detailed to a degree that reveals his personal and observational viewpoint, illustrating the interconnectedness of life in a natural ecosystem. On the other hand, Burns inserts nature with a voice that speaks on a larger issue. An example for this is the poem “To a Mouse”, where the mouse’s plight reflects human hardships, changing nature into a canvas to explore existential ideas. Where Clare’s poetry is personal and observational, Burns’ is metaphorical and universal. 

While both poets explore the universal themes of love and loss, they differ with how deeply they engage with the emotion. Clare’s love poems, like “First Love” and “The Secret”, portray love as an overwhelming emotion which is also personal. His approach is direct and raw here unlike how Burns approaches. Works like "A Red, Red Rose" and "Ae Fond Kiss" have passion as their centre but expressed in an idealized manner. He also exploits rhythm (form of lyric) and emotion by blending form and tools such as hyperbole and accessible language. Burns takes heartbreak into a song and invites the reader into a shared experience unlike the introverted and overwhelming emotional tone that Clare employs. One must also remember that while thematically overlapping, both poets are (also) responding to different local socio-political circumstances while having lived in roughly the same time (Clare was born three years before Burns died). Clare is responding to the enclosure of rural lands and ‘development’ of rural society that he witnesses, which while personal is also symbolic of a vanishing culture. His poetry (“The Badger” and "I Am!") speak on the state of marginalized subjects (Animal and Human). Burns, in a similar fashion, fights for the dignity of labour and labourers through his employment of dialect and subject matter. Burns’ use of the dialect conveys authenticity and depth which connects readers to the cultural landscape of his home (Scotland). While Clare captures rural life with a more conventional English, Burns fights the stigma in literature associated with the use of a dialect.

Despite linguistic differences, both poets leave a sense of place in the reader. This might be because of their masterful use of imagery and symbolism. Clare uses imagery in a precise and realistic manner, writing landscapes with accuracy. An example of this can be the poem “The Nightingale’s Nest”:  

“Part aside 

These hazel branches in a gentle way, 

And stoop right cautious beneath the rustling boughs, 

For we will have another search to day, 

And hunt this fern-strewn thorn-clump round and round; 

And where this reeded wood-grass idly bows” 

His naturalistic and detailed style shines through here. Aside from accuracy, Clare also used landscapes as a backdrop to reflect states of mind. Burns engages with imagery in a more metaphorical sense than Clare, using flowers, animals, rural life etc. To denote larger issues and emotions. The best example for this is the poem “To a Mouse”, where the mouse a symbol for the human condition, carrying emotions such as sorrow and suffering. Both poets offer a sense of closeness and the personal by writing in first-person point of view. Burns often is seen conversing with animals or other people, making dialogue crucial. He also combines the colloquial speech he employs with the ballad form, simulating both speech and song. Both poets use irony to illustrate their message, Burns uses it with humour like in his poem “Tam o’ Shanter”, where he gives his take on superstition in a satiric manner. Clare uses irony in a more introverted sense, highlighting contradictions like the one between human aspirations and the limits of the natural world. 

Clare was born into poverty and witnessed the unfair practice of enclosure in rural England, a process which privatized common land, destroying communities which were age-old. He addresses this in his poetry with nostalgia and sorrow for what was lost. Anxieties over industrialisation as well as mental illness permeated his work (He was institutionalized later in life). Burns lived a short life in a period of upheaval in Scotland where nationalism and an assertion of local culture was rising. He weaponized his rural origins and use of the Scottish dialect to fight hierarchies of culture in his day. His poetry was a collective expression, a preservation folk culture and language. 

John Clare and Robert Burns occupy a pivotal position in the literature of the Romantic period. For his portrayal of the English countryside and emotional depth, Clare was considered a quintessential Romantic poet. A profound connection to nature, thematic engagement with love and loss as well as effects of industrialisation placed him firmly within that tradition (Romantic). Burns on the other hand wrote right before the Romantic period, addressing the struggles of the rural marginalized and life in rural communities. The commitment both held to portraying rural life, nature, emotional depth, as well as use of common language aligns with the principles of William Wordsworth that he detailed in his preface to the Lyrical Ballads in 1800. Wordsworth advocated for “incidents and situations from common life”, “language really used by men”, and “humble and rustic life” where “the essential passions of the heart find a better soil” (Wordsworth and Coleridge). 

Their depictions of the working class marked a deviation from the elite tendencies of literature in their time. Literature then often looked away from the less educated and economically lower classes. Burns worked as a voice for the common people, comfortably embracing the lives of the poor and marginalized. He captured the ordinary life of people in an ordinary language, connecting educated and uneducated readers. Clare provided readers with similar embrace, one between humanity and nature. He also critiqued the industrial changes of his time, standing with his poetry in an act of political resistance. The influence that both Clare and Burns have on literature today is with the explorations of marginalized narratives as well as voices and speeches traditionally overlooked by the elite canon of English literature. 

Academic studies have focussed on the linguistic nuances of Robert Burns, challenging the myth that he was an illiterate farmer who wrote only because of inspiration. His knowledge of both the English and Scottish dialects allowed him a literary flexibility that he could employ as and when apt. Burns was also skilled at code-switching, shifting between the language spoken by Ayrshire Scots to emerging standards of Scottish English (Smith). Academic attention has also fallen on the relationship between Clare and Burns, where Clare was vary of being labelled a “second Burns”, which highlights how Burns precedent allowed someone like Clare to find a voice in poetry. An example is Clare’s “Burnsian love lyrics”, obviously inspired by Burns, blending lyric and emotion in a direction Clare was not usually known for (A. White). 

The comparative study of John Clare and Robert Burns shows us how two poets, with two different artistic journeys and contexts, shaped literature within and beyond the Romantic tradition. Both were advocates for the common person, celebrated nature and its beauty, responded to changes in their society through verse. While Burns utilised the Scottish dialect to convey a public and communal voice, Clare embraced a conventional English which he employed to detail meticulously the rural English countryside. Their legacy continues to this day because of their ability to honour the voices and realities of ordinary people, exhibiting poetry as a tool of justice as well as memory. They are both poets who have secured their position in the evolution of British literature and Romantic literature specifically, illustrating the relevance of voices from all backgrounds in the world of literature. 

References

Smith, J. J. “Copia verborum: The Linguistic Choices of Robert Burns.” The Review of English Studies, vol. 58, no. 233, Feb. 2007, pp. 73–88. https://doi.org/10.1093/res/hgm002.

White, Simon J. “Romanticism and the rural community.” Palgrave Macmillan UK eBooks, 2013, https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137281791.

Wordsworth, William, and Samuel Taylor Coleridge. “Lyrical Ballads.” Routledge eBooks, 2013, https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203823613.