John Clare

In this series, a contemporary poet selects and introduces a poet of the past whom they particularly admire. By their selection of verses and critical reactions they express in their prefaces, the selectors offer intriguing insights into their own work.

After years of indifference and neglect, John Clare (1793-1864) is now recognized as one of the greatest English Romantic poets. Clare was an impoverished agricultural laborer, whose genius was generally not appreciated by his contemporaries, and his later mental instability further contributed to his loss of critical esteem. But the extraordinary range of his poetical gifts has restored him to the company of contemporaries like Lord Byron, John Keats,...

Selection of poems about the varying seasons in the English countryside by an early nineteenth-century poet.

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An overview of the lifestyle and changing role of the knight during the Middle Ages.

Describes daily life in ancient Egypt during the time of the Pharaoh Chephren, including clothing, makeup, home life, religious practices, burial rituals, and the construction and role of the pyramids.

Describes the dramatic technological, industrial, and social changes brought about by the Industrial Revolution in America and Europe.

Describes the institutions and daily life of towns in fourteenth-century western Europe, including home life, guilds, schools, the Church, and the ravages of the plague.