Sonnet 'I Love to see the summer?

1. Sonnet 'I Love to see the summer? John Clare 1793-1864 Slide three links to video reading on BBC Bitesize F/H

2. John Clare • John Clare (1793-1864) was a farm labourer from Northamptonshire • He taught himself by reading everything he could find as he had no formal education • Worked as a gardener at Burghley House near Stamford, while writing poems for his first collection • Clare really knew from experience what it was like to live and work in the country (unlike most poets of this time) • He has a positive view of nature, but does not idealise it, because he knows the reality of the labourer's toil • This Sonnet was written in 1841, but gives no hint madness he suffered. Clare perhaps wrote it as a release from his everyday troubles. F/H

3. Themes Natural beauty Rebirth and new beginnings Light Simple pleasures/Joy Key terms Metaphor Simile Anthropomorphism Iambic pentameter Rhythm & Metre Sonnet form Non-standard English The Poem F/H

4. Sonnet 'I Love to see the summer? March marigolds I love to see the summer beaming forth And white wool sack clouds sailing to the north I love to see the wild flowers come again And Mare blobs stain with gold the meadow drain And water lillies whiten on the floods Where reed clumps rustle like a wind shook wood Where from her hiding place the Moor Hen pushes And seeks her flag nest floating in bull rushes I like the willow leaning half way o'er The clear deep lake to stand upon its shore I love the hay grass when the flower head swings To summer winds and insects happy wings That sport about the meadow the bright day And see bright beetles in the clear lake play Ditch or drain to allow water to clear away from fields familiar to Clare due to his work Nest of wild leaves Simple, colloquial (slang) language reflecting the nature of the pleasure Clare is engaged in F/H

5. The poem is about Clare's joy at the arrival of summer. Simplistic, almost child-like opening expressing the sheer joy Clare feels for Summer and nature’s beauty I love to see the summer beaming forth And white wool sack clouds sailing to the north I love to see the wild flowers come again And Mare blobs stain with gold the meadow drain And water lillies whiten on the floods Where reed clumps rustle like a wind shook wood Where from her hiding place the Moor Hen pushes And seeks her flag nest floating in bull rushes I like the willow leaning half way o'er The clear deep lake to stand upon its shore I love the hay grass when the flower head swings To summer winds and insects happy wings That sport about the meadow the bright day And see bright beetles in the clear lake play Essentially, this poem is a list of the things Clare loves about summer. Expressed simply and in the language of a man who implicitly understands the natural world This is a poem of strong visual images, very much a picture drawn in words F/H

6. Sonnets usually have a rhyme structure but not this one: AA,BB,CC,DD,EE,FF,GG This is NOT a sonnet! Who’d have guessed? A sonnet is a fourteen line poem with ten syllables per line written in iambic pentameter I love to see the summer beaming forth And white wool sack clouds sailing to the north I love to see the wild flowers come again And Mare blobs stain with gold the meadow drain And water lillies whiten on the floods Where reed clumps rustle like a wind shook wood Where from her hiding place the Moor Hen pushes And seeks her flag nest floating in bull rushes I like the willow leaning half way o'er The clear deep lake to stand upon its shore I love the hay grass when the flower head swings To summer winds and insects happy wings That sport about the meadow the bright day And see bright beetles in the clear lake play A A B B C C D D E E F F G G The rhyming couplets give a soft, rhythmical feel to the poem. Almost like a nursery rhyme and song. Does this fit with the meaning of the poem? Sonnets are generally used as love poetry. What is the effect of Clare using this form here? F/H

7. Simple language describing the simple joy of nature but the images the create a vibrant and vivid ‘shook’ not shaken Clare uses non standard English- revealing his lack of education I love to see the summer beaming forth And white wool sack clouds sailing to the north I love to see the wild flowers come again And Mare blobs stain with gold the meadow drain And water lillies whiten on the floods Where reed clumps rustle like a wind shook wood Where from her hiding place the Moor Hen pushes And seeks her flag nest floating in bull rushes I like the willow leaning half way o'er The clear deep lake to stand upon its shore I love the hay grass when the flower head swings To summer winds and insects happy wings That sport about the meadow the bright day And see bright beetles in the clear lake play This is a sensory poem. Note which lines link to which senses. How does Clare create a full picture of this world? F/H

8. No punctuation, this was incredibly odd in 19th century literature Is this because he was so excited at what he saw he didn’t think to punctuate; does it show us his sheer joy in nature? I love to see the summer beaming forth And white wool sack clouds sailing to the north I love to see the wild flowers come again And Mare blobs stain with gold the meadow drain And water lillies whiten on the floods Where reed clumps rustle like a wind shook wood Where from her hiding place the Moor Hen pushes And seeks her flag nest floating in bull rushes I like the willow leaning half way o'er The clear deep lake to stand upon its shore I love the hay grass when the flower head swings To summer winds and insects happy wings That sport about the meadow the bright day And see bright beetles in the clear lake play Did he want to impress upon his reader the breathless beauty of nature by not putting punctuated pauses in? Is this because he was poorly educated and ‘forgot’ to punctuate? F/H

9. Is this poem unsophisticated and repetitive or cleverly structured to emphasise Clare’s point? I love to see the summer beaming forth And white wool sack clouds sailing to the north I love to see the wild flowers come again And Mare blobs stain with gold the meadow drain And water lillies whiten on the floods Where reed clumps rustle like a wind shook wood Where from her hiding place the Moor Hen pushes And seeks her flag nest floating in bull rushes I like the willow leaning half way o'er The clear deep lake to stand upon its shore I love the hay grass when the flower head swings To summer winds and insects happy wings That sport about the meadow the bright day And see bright beetles in the clear lake play What is the effect of the alliteration? Does mimick the wind whistling through the trees? Most lines represent a complete train of thought but the idea expressed hear ‘swings’ onto the next line. Why might this be? F/H

10. The metaphors and simile he uses are very much comparisons of one thing to another that is very similar to it. In this way the simplistic joy of the poem is maintained and reflect the poet’s experience I love to see the summer beaming forth And white wool sack clouds sailing to the north I love to see the wild flowers come again And Mare blobs stain with gold the meadow drain And water lillies whiten on the floods Where reed clumps rustle like a wind shook wood Where from her hiding place the Moor Hen pushes And seeks her flag nest floating in bull rushes I like the willow leaning half way o'er The clear deep lake to stand upon its shore I love the hay grass when the flower head swings To summer winds and insects happy wings That sport about the meadow the bright day And see bright beetles in the clear lake play Clare’s child-like view of nature is summed up as he imagines the insects at play in the same way as a child might Anthropomorphism of the willow and flower heads gives a laid back, relaxed feeling to the scene that Clare has created F/H

11. Comparisons • The Field Mouse Clarke • Both poems describe a summer scene and the thoughts it gives rise to • Both use simple, everyday language, • In The Field Mouse the scene is full not of joy but of threat (The air hums with jets) • The ideas in the Clarke poem are more complex, with the harvest scene interrupted by thoughts of war • The Eagle Tennyson • Natural beauty is presented in both • Both are from the point of view of an observer • One is a real experience the other is at least partly imaginary What other poems and ideas could this be compared to? F/H

12. Writing about the poems • What might you want to say about the view of summer in this poem? Briefly note down some points that you would want to include in your essay. • The poet begins his sonnet with a clear statement, I love to see the summer: he wants to announce his feelings for the summer with all the passion of a lover. • The lack of punctuation in the poem suggests he is so keen to express his ideas that they all come tumbling out at once. • He describes the whole view to us, from the wool sack clouds to the bright beetles. This shift of perspective suggests that nothing escapes him: he is aware of every single summer beauty. • The poet provides us with several highly visual images, such as the marsh marigolds which stain the meadow with gold. The word stain indicates how deeply the rich colour belongs to the landscape – it will not come off. • It is interesting that the poem ends on play. It is a word associated with childhood and freedom, which is in complete contrast to Clare’s sad life at the time that this poem was written. Perhaps this suggests that the summer helps to lift his spirits and remind him of more joyful times. F/H