John Clare and Man's Relation to Nature

I found the two poems by John Clare, “Ballad” and “To an insignificant flower, obscurely blooming in a lonely wild,” to be of particular interest when considering man’s relation to the natural world. I believe that we mentioned in Monday’s class the fact that, at times, we tend to think of ourselves as existing outside of the natural world and apart from nature. We might exercise what Sociologists call “othering,” where basically we create a definition of self by setting ourselves in opposition to other entities, institutions, or groups of people. In doing so with respect to nature, we look at ourselves as being members of the civilized world, and having little relationship with particular pieces of flora and fauna. Clare, on the other hand, performs just the opposite action. In these two poems, one might say that he is “sameing” with the flowers about which the two poems are written. In Clare’s poems, flowers are attributed with human-like emotions. They can experience pain, fear, loneliness, and pride, among other feelings. In “To an insignificant flower…” he even claims to have a friendship with a wildflower and likens it to himself by using the words “like me” on several occasions. This suggests that Clare sees man and nature not as separate and independent entities, but rather as markedly linked and similar life forces which can gain mutual understanding and benefit.