Recollected Sanity

John Clare’s madness later in life is reflected in his poetry. In particular, his nature poems burst with overwhelming and disorganized sense-impressions that do not seem conventionally “romantic.” To get a more precise sense of what makes Clare’s later nature poems so disconcerting, it is useful to examine “Remembrances” as a nature poem that predates his insanity. In contrast with the bewilderment of “Snow Storm,” “Autumn,” and “The Flood,” “Remembrances” demonstrates a mastery over the speaker’s environment through a sense of narrative continuity and cognitive order. Through the conspicuous absence of these elements, the later nature poems reflect the state of mind of an untethered individual who has not only become estranged from the past but has also lost the ability to make sense of the present