The Speaker
The speaker usually stays in the background of John Clare’s poems. In the more observant poems about nature and rural tradition, the focus is directed outwards, and the speaker functions as a lens through which we see the world, rather than a subject to whom we pay attention. In his more abstract poems, like “First Love” or “I Am!,” the speaker often undergoes an experience of erasure, as the intensity of his experience causes him to lose his sense of who he is. When we do feel close to the speaker, like in “The Yellowhammer’s Nest,” the poem doesn’t tell us much about him, but he welcomes us into the poem as a companion, to share in his love of the little creatures.
Nature
Nature sometimes takes on an active role in Clare’s poetry. In both “Love Lives Beyond the Tomb” and “The Yellowhammer’s Nest,” nature has its own voice, which can be heard in the sounds of the countryside, from the wind to the songbirds. By giving nature a voice, Clare creates a parallel between himself and the natural world: both are poets giving voice to beauty.
Mary Joyce
Clare wrote many poems dedicated to his childhood crush, Mary Joyce, including “First Love.” We don’t get a strong sense of her unique personality: these poems seem to be motivated as much by nostalgia for childhood and the feeling of falling in love as they are by interest in Mary Joyce herself.
Animals
Clare often depicts animals with the empathy we tend to reserve for human characters. In “The Badger,” the titular creature is the protagonist and the central character, rather than the human beings who hunt him. In “The Yellowhammer’s Nest,” the songbird is a poet who dreams and mourns. Clare depicts the animals as having their own desires and as experiencing intense emotion. He also affords them dignity, casting them as the heroes of their own poems.
