Eternity (Symbol)
In Clare’s poetry, eternity is a symbol of God. Clare often emphasizes the omnipresence of death and loss in the material world: everything eventually fades away, whether that’s living creatures that die, or just dew that evaporates and rocks that erode. Yet in several of his poems, Clare describes encounters with “eternity” in this ordinary mortal world. In this context, eternity symbolizes God, in the sense that it is a being that both fills the world and extends beyond its ordinary rules.
Birds and Insects (Motifs)
Clare wrote many poems about birds and insects throughout his career, including “Clock a Clay” and “The Yellowhammer’s Nest.” These poems are inspired by Clare’s respect for the smallest living creatures, as well as his ability to extend empathy towards animals, even animals with radically different perspectives than human beings. By adopting the perspective of much smaller creatures, these poems invite the reader to see the world in a new way.
Grass and Sky (Motifs)
Though Clare was attentive to the particularities of place and the individual creatures that make up the world, he was also enamored with wide expanses of grass and sky. He often writes about the state of the grass in different times of the year, from its greenness in the spring to when it is dried up and crisp in the autumn. He also imagines lying down on the grass, staring up into the sky, and disappearing into a more peaceful existence.
Greek Mythology (Allegories)
In “The Yellowhammer’s Nest,” Clare uses Greek mythology allegorically, casting the female yellowhammer as a nymph, and her mate as the muse who inspires her to make art in the form of eggs. Generally, Clare does not write allegorically, because he tends to approach animals as persons in their own right, rather than symbols of other ideas. “The Yellowhammer’s Nest” is something of an exception that proves the rule, because Clare uses allegory to celebrate the birds’ own creative powers.
Grief (Motif)
John Clare’s poetry is frequently punctuated by allusions to grief, woe, or mourning. Sometimes other creatures grieve, as when a warbler’s young are killed by a snake in “The Yellowhammer’s Nest.” More often, the grief is Clare’s own, as in the heartbreaking poem “I Am!,” which depicts a speaker overwhelmed by his own sense of loss. Clare tends to depict grief not as something to solve or move on from, but rather as an inevitable part of life that one must learn to live with.
