I am By John Clare By Hala Siblani and Jordanna Azcona

Form of The Poem – The type of poem is a lyric poem. – It has 3 stanzas and 6 lines per stanza – The structure of the three stanzas seems to be based on time, the first stanza is what is happening, he is 'live' the second is what is about to happen, what he is going 'into' and the third is what he thinks or wants to happen, what "I long for". Rhyme Scheme – The 1 st stanza’s rhyme scheme is ABABAB and it is written in iambic pentameter and the 2 nd and 3 rd stanza’s are ABABCC

I am- yet what I am none cares or knows; My friends forsake me like a memory lost: I am the self-consumer of my woes- Theorise and vanish in oblivious host, Like shadows in love’s frenzied stifled throes And yet I am, and live- like vapours tossed Into the nothingness of scorn and noise, Into the living sea of walking dreams, Where there is neither sense of like or joys, But the vast shipwreck of my life‘s esteems; Evan the dearest that I loved the best Are strange-nay, rather, stranger than the rest I long for scenes where man heath never trod A place where woman never smiled or wept There to abide with my Creator, God, And sleep as I in childhood sweetly slept, Untroubling and untroubled where I lie The grass below- above the vaulted sky.

John Clare’s History  Born 1793  Died 1864  Clare was the son of a poor farming family  John Clare was considered England’s first working class poet.  His mental health deteriorated, and he spent the rest of his life institutionalized He wrote it during trip number 2 to the asylum. While it possibly refers to the decaying state of Clare's mind

I am- yet what I am none cares or knows; My friends forsake me like a memory lost: (simile I am the self-consumer of my woes- Theorise and vanish in oblivious host, Like shadows in love’s frenzied stifled throes And yet I am, and live- like vapours tossed (simile)

Into the nothingness of scorn and noise, Into the living sea of waking dreams, (Personification & Oxymoron) Where there is neither sense of like or joys, But the vast shipwreck of my life‘s esteems; (Metaphor) Even the dearest that I loved the best Are strange-nay, rather, stranger than the rest

I long for scenes where man heath never trod A place where woman never smiled or wept There to abide with my Creator, God, And sleep as I in childhood sweetly slept, Untroubling and untroubled where I lie The grass below- above the vaulted sky. (Imagery) The grass below- above the vaulted sky. This is imagery. Vaulted means arched. If you look up at the sky a certain way, it sort of looks like arched ceiling.

Meaning of the Poem The first part of the poem the speaker tells us that nobody cares about him anymore and that his friends have abandoned him. He suffers his woes alone; he is like "vapours" tossed into some noisy, place full of waking dreams that looks like some shipwreck What he is trying to say is nobody will every know who he is, because they aren’t him. They haven't lived his life, they don't share all his memories. He is also saying that nothing about him, makes him, and the only thing that he knows, is that he "is".