[Illustration: JOHN CLARE.

_Engraved by E. Scriven, from a Painting by W. Hilton, R.A._]



POEMS CHIEFLY FROM MANUSCRIPT by JOHN CLARE


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NOTE


For the present volume over two thousand poems by Clare have been
considered and compared; of which over two-thirds have not been
published. Of those here given ninety are now first printed, and are
distinguished with asterisks in the contents: one or two are gleaned
from periodicals: and many of the others have been brought into line
with manuscript versions. While poetic value has been the general
ground of selection, the development of the poet has seemed of
sufficient interest for representation; and some of Clare's juvenilia
are accordingly included. The arrangement is chronological, though
in many cases the date of a poem can only be conjectured from the
handwriting and the style; and it is almost impossible to affix dates
to such Asylum Poems as bear none.

Punctuation and orthography have been attempted; Clare left such
matters to his editor in his lifetime, conceiving them to be an