Fiction Adaptation Unit - Researching John Clare

Since I have chosen to do a sonnet by John Clare, I wanted to do some background research on him so I could roughly gadge the original intention of the poem. John Clare was born in the 18th century in 1793. His work mainly spanned across the 19th century and is now one of the most famous poets of this time being re worked in the 20th. He was born near peterborough in England and published his first book of poems in 1820. Being a farm labourer, he was not intending on success but he was quickly praised for the book and several more books were published not far after.

John Struggled with mental health issues including depression and instability as well as increasing his alcohol intake over time creating judgements from society and the community that he lived in. In the last stages of his life he was eventually commited to a lunatic asylum where he remained until he died but still continued writing to help with his emotions which spawned the famous poem "I Am".


Here are a list of poems that he is known for:

- First Love
- I Am
-Summer
-Trespass
-All Nature Has A Feeling
- Autumn
- An Invite to Eternity


I regards to my adaptation I feel I would be tieing into the themes of judgement and where some of his intententions may have been coming from in terms of being disapproved by society with an unstable mindset. Although my key character will be a lap dancer, I feel this could be a modern take of the way he may have been expressing himself.