The Living Sea (Symbol)
In the second stanza, Clare uses the sea as a symbol for the instability of his life. The sea is a boundless, unnavigable space, without landmarks and ravaged by unpredictable storms. It is at once constantly changing and eternal: every second new waves rise up and disappear, even like Clare’s woes, which “rise and vanish” in the previous stanza. Yet the ocean itself remains the same forever. Similarly, Clare sees his life as an endless sequence of turbulent and unpredictable changes, all of which blur into one long, unmarked, inescapable “waking dream.”
The countryside (Motif)
One of the defining qualities of Clare’s poetry is his references to and careful consideration of the countryside. In “I Am!” this motif appears in the final lines, as the speaker states his wish to lie down with “the grass below—above the vaulted sky.” Although here he is expressing his desire for death, at the very last he cannot entirely let go of the world. He longs for a place where no one has ever been, and yet he imagines that place as a typical stretch of English countryside, with green grass and a high blue sky above. Some critics have described Clare as a perpetually hopeful poet, despite his profound sadness. Here, although the poem expresses utter despair, its imagery still records the poet’s love for the world.
