John Clare, Enclosures and the Environmental Crisis

From the John Clare Weblog - George Monbiot on "John Clare, the poet of the environmental crisis - 200 years ago"

Original George Monbiot article (9 July, 2012) in The Guardian

A follow-up letter in The Guardian (13 July, 2012):

"Thank you, George Monbiot. It's always good to remember John Clare of Helpston and there will surely be people for whom Monbiot's article is an introduction to the great witness-poet. The enclosures were significant acts in the movement that put "the earth and all that therin is" at the service of capital, and hence of capitalism. They were not the beginning of the environmental crisis: we were already fast using up forests and burning fossil fuels without fear of the consequences. This is not to detract from any celebration of Clare and our debt to him: particularly Monbiot's recognition that Clare suffered "the fate of indigenous people torn from their land and belonging everywhere".

Janet Dubé
Gwyddgrug, Carmarthenshire



NB William Barnes also wrote powerfully about the enclosures.

See, for instance, "Eclogue: The common a-took in"