Blog on the Learig

  8 July 2025 John Clare was baptised on 11 August 1793 in the local parish church. He belonged to the Church of England all his days. However, he was aware of the other local denominations worshipping at one point with the Methodists. He knew about the Catholics and wrote about the Jews and Mohametans. Whilst God doesn’t often make an appearance in his verse, his obvious love of the creation draws him closer to his creator! ‘Tis nature’s wonder and her maker’s voice, Who bade earth be and order owns him still, As that superior power who keeps the key Of wisdom, power and might through all eternity. (The Eternity of Nature) In his introduction to one of Clare’s longest poems, ’The Parish’, Eric Robinson says, ‘He was a Christian first and an Anglican second. He wanted to see all Christians united in a common faith practising kindness and love to those in need, whatever their race or creed.’ It’s a refreshingly contemporary point of view manifested in our ecumenical ...

  7 July 2025 John Clare was born on 13 July 1793, four years after the fall of the Bastille. He lived in a village called Helpstone in Northamptonshire. There may have been about three hundred inhabitants.   His mother, Ann, was illiterate. Although his father, Parker Clare, was an agricultural labourer, he loved to sing folk songs and retell the folktales which had been passed down from one generation to another. John Clare went to a dame school in the village when he was five. His education was complete at twelve. During this time, he was removed from school periodically to work as a thresher with his dad. He too became an agricultural labourer – ploughing, reaping, threshing, tending the horses and even gardening on the local estate, Burghley House. He also loved music. During his life, he collected over 250 folk songs and played the fiddle. At first, he was embarrassed about his poetry and hid it away. But it became a compulsion. He always kept a pencil in his pocke...

  6 July 2025 There is such freshness in John Clare’s poetry. Writing about an early morning ramble, he says, ‘Morn’s flushing face peeps out her first fond smile,/ Crimsoning the east in many tinted hue’. (A Ramble) Describing the signs of new life springing up in the wintry landscape, he focuses on the appearance of primroses ‘Behind the wood’s old roots where ivy shields/ Their crimpled curdled leaves will shine and hide’. (Open Winter) These two words say it all, don’t they? What a brilliant way to describe the first appearance of the primrose for it does shine in the sunlight but it also hides behind the wood’s old roots sheltering from bitter wintry weather! With this freshness of language, there is also an element of surprise. The poet is often astonished by what he sees. In ‘Stepping Stones’, it is the boys who fly away from the geese and not the geese from the boys! In ‘A Walk in the Forest’, he sees the woodman and his dog who ‘runs eager where the rabbit’s gone...

  5 July 2025 Well, in my walks I rarely found A place less likely for a bird to form Its nest – close by the rut-gulled wagon road And on the almost bare foot-trodden ground With scarce a clump of grass to keep it warm, And not a thistle spreads its spears abroad Or prickly bush to shield it from harm’s way, And yet so snugly made that none may spy It out save accident – and you and I Had surely passed it in our walk today Had chance not led us by it – nay e’en now, Had not the old bird heard us trampling by And fluttered out, we had not seen it lie Brown as the roadway side … You’ve been there, haven’t you? But you’ve never been able to recall the incident so perfectly. You’re walking down a country road. Your eye is caught by a slight movement in the embankment. Suddenly, a bird flies out and reveals a secret – her nest! The poet is surprised. The location is so vulnerable. There’s a little grass to keep it warm. And there’s no thistle nor thorn t...

  4 July 2025 One of the most graphic accounts of contemporary imprisonment must surely be Brian Keenan’s ‘An Evil Cradling’. Reflecting on his imprisonment in the Lebanon, Keenan has many insights to offer on the complex relationship between captive and captor. One thing which impressed me was his determination to maintain his own inner freedom and never to become enslaved despite his imprisonment. On one occasion when   he was sharing a cell with John McCarthy, they were given new clothes. Brian thought that this was a bad sign. Not only did it lend credence to the possibility of a more permanent incarceration, it also had the potential to dehumanise them by replacing their own clothes with the clothes of their captors. He refused to co-operate. On the other hand, John didn’t see it as a problem and wore them.   Although their whole lives were lived together in the intimacy of this cell, they were free to make their own decisions and free to accept differing pri...

  3 July 2025 Right at the start of his Galilean ministry, Jesus reveals the liberating power of God’s love in an unusual way. In the synagogue, he preaches a gospel of freedom – good news to the poor, liberty to the captives, sight to the blind…. At first, the people are impressed but they become hostile. ‘Doctor, cure yourself!’ they say. This proverb   means roughly, ‘Charity begins at home!’ But Jesus doesn’t agree. Remember Elijah! He ministered to the widow of Zarephath. Remember Elisha! He healed Naaman, the Syrian. Neither were Jews but both were imprisoned by poverty and disease. The people were challenged by Jesus’ preaching. They hound him out of the synagogue and almost kill him. Jesus appears untouched by their aggressive determination to imprison him in their narrow world view. They meant to throw him over a cliff but St. Luke says, ‘He passed through the midst of them and went on his way.’ He was untouched not only physically but also spiritually because...