"In a strange stillness"

Continuing to work on a book entitled "Trees - In a strange stillness' the cover of which will figure this wonderful photograph by Mike Hobson, and will be illustrated throughout with photographs from Shelly Rolinson.  Here is part of the introduction, and one of the selected poems:

Clare’s map of boyhood was full of trees, from the elm trees that rocked over his cottage to the hollow oaks and old willows in which he hid from pelting rain and prying eyes.  They were his cradle, his robbers’ cave, his pulpit, his study and his refuge.  They were his friends and he knew them as individuals whose passing he mourned as he mourned the loss of his first love, Mary Joyce.  There seems little doubt that he felt for them the same constriction of the heart and the bottomless stomach that the rest of us experience from human loss. 

Trees were the signposts of his daily rambles, the monuments of his tradition, the guardians of  his dead and the symbols of changing time.  Twice at least in his Journal Clare comments on stories about the rapid growth of trees in the Helpston neighbourhood and in terms that demonstrate the particularlity of his tree-observations.

Clare was concerned about maintaining the tree population of his environment, and in a sense the history of Helpston and of our poet is that partly told in trees.  Then came enclosure when, for the trees, a wholesale devastation took place.

Nothingness of Life
I never pass a venerable tree

Pining away to nothingness & dust
Ruins vain shades of power I never see
Once dedicated to times cheating trust
But warm reflection wakes her saddest thought
& views lifes vanity in cheerless light
& sees earths bubbles youth so eager sought
Burst into emptiness of lost delight
& all the pictures of lifes early day
Like evenings striding shadows haste away
Yet theres a glimmering of pleasure springs
From such reflections of earths vanity
That pines & sickens oer lifes mortal things
& leaves a relish for eternity

(MP IV 278)

The poor affrican...

The Vicar’s Sermon, from the Novel (1826)

After meeting the African beggar on his second visit to London, I do feel that Clare was moved to write this piece - in the mouth of the local vicar - to express his own thoughts.  In my opinion it says rather a lot about Clare.  Remember that slavery was not abolished until 1833, but even then it was partial, to say the least.  

Here is the telling paragraph from Wikipedia: "The Act had its third reading in the House of Commons on 26 July 1833, three days before William Wilberforce died.  It received the Royal Assent a month later, on 28 August, and came into force the following year, on 1 August 1834.  In practical terms, only slaves below the age of six were freed in the colonies.  Former slaves over the age of six were redesignated as "apprentices", and their servitude was abolished in two stages: the first set of apprenticeships came to an end on 1 August 1838, while the final apprenticeships were scheduled to cease on 1 August 1840.  The Act specifically excluded "the Territories in the Possession of the East India Company, or to the Island of Ceylon, or to the Island of Saint Helena." The exceptions were eliminated in 1843."

Talk not of distinction – look at the poor affrican     does the color of his skin forbid us to treat him with mercy     is his complextion the liscence for our inhumanity – is it a discontinuance of that link that enacts us to be humane to our fellow creatures in what ever grade or station we find them     is color & complextion any insult to our feelings     no     the blood of that poor emaciated black creature which I have in my minds eye   is as crimson as that which flowed down the temples of our divine master when like the affrican he was injured & scourged & crowned with thorns     & what for bretheren     why he suffered him self to be bound that that poor bleeding affrican might be free     he suffered his own blood to flow that that poor affricans blood might be spared     he suffered himself to die that the affrican might live & be happy in escaping the sufferings that he himself underwent for the very purpose that they might be free –

         & our only way to [b]e happy is to be kind to all for he who [se]es so much difference between the negro & himself   as to think a black man cannot be human like a white one   or that a black man [s]oul cannot be of so much consequence in the registery of heaven as his own   or that he stands [n]ot on the same footing in the favour of god as his self – that man (raising his hand with [his] voice & at the same [time] knocking his spectacles above his nose   which he had not time to adjust) – that man I say   be what he may in his own estimation   is no christian – for to think rightly of others is to feel that the same hand that made one made all – he that made the great behemoth   that monster of the deep which putteth the greatest ships in peril of being over set   made the little butterfly that the feeble child   as soon as it feeleth its feet   chaseth without fear  --

          & if the king upon his throne (god bless him)   yes if the king himself thought contrary to myself upon this subject   I would say   and say it out [loud]   that in the midst of earthly magnificance his majesty had not found that nessesary qualification of christian meekess which is a nessesary unto salvation   as the pen was were bye I write this sermon – do good unto thy neighbour as thyself & be charitable to all men –

This very important and eloquent passage was published in 2017 in Clare's aborted novel 'Memoirs of Uncle Barnaby' (Arbour Editions) the passage forms part of a longer passage Clare intended in setting the scene for his novel.  The novel is unfinished of course, but 'Memoirs' is my attempt at putting together in a logical order all the passages I could find, both in discussion with Professor Eric Robinson and seeking out further enlightenment from the archives.