I Am Analysis

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—
     They rise and vanish in oblivious host,
Like shadows in love's frenzied, stifled throes—
And yet I am, and live—like vapors tossed

Into the nothingness of scorn and noise,
     Into the living sea of waking dreams,
Where there is neither sense of life or joys,
     But the vast shipwreck of my life's esteems;
Even the dearest, that I love the best,
Are strange—nay, rather stranger than the rest.

I long for scenes, where man hath 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.

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I tend to view this poem somewhat differently to most people I am acquainted with.
Look at what John Clare is yearning for. He is not yearning for his friends and loved ones – they have never really understood him anyway. He certainly is not looking for anything that any of his friends and loved ones would consider excitement.
John Clare yearns for peace and quiet. He yearns for a type isolation that none of his friends understands – isolation that to them is so nightmarish that they consider him a lunatic for even wanting it.
It is not that dislikes people. Far from it – he loves them but they do not understand him – and given the choice he would probably share his isolation with someone who appreciates both the soulful intimacy of, and the absolute trust imbued by, comfortable silence.
What is driving John Clare to insanity is the pressure to conform - to be what others, even the one he loves most, expect of him and their inability to understand what would allow him to be free of their demands, away from their idea of excitement and liberated to be his true self.

| Posted on 2009-10-15 | by a guest

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I Am
The first stanza in this poem explains John Clare's perception of being forgotten and being almost like a ghost that nobody sees, hears or notices.
The second stanza shows that his life has no excitement, all he has wanted in his life is gone. Part of this stanza refers to the love of his life Mary Joyce, her father would not allow John to see her, but for a good reason as he was mad. He ended up marrying Patty Turner.
The third stanza shows that he wants something new in his life. To start his life again and to live with nothing holding him back. To live simply, as children do.
Also please note that this poem was written when John Clare was living in Northamptom General Lunatic Asylum.

| Posted on 2009-09-15 | by a guest

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Many anthologies of john Clare’s poetry end with the poem "I AM” to what extent do you feel that, in terms of subject matter and style, this poem would form an appropriate conclusion to a selection of Clare’s writing?
The poem “I am” is a generalized look at life and finding that all the events and cares that a person experiences is really self-contained. You live alone and you die alone. It also seems true that this poem has been written toward the end of his life, but if not, then he certainly lived a frustrated life. The biographical information may be important to this poem, but it appears that it is a summarization of life, rather than a poem discussing a difficult time. All throughout time, man has been plagued with carrying the heavy burden of existence and identity on his mind and on his shoulders. One dares not ponder too long, for such idle thoughts can seduce a man into the unwelcoming arms of madness. John Clare had already crossed the threshold of madness before succumbing to the dangerous assessments of identity and self-awareness. During Clare’s institutionalization within the confines of the Northampton General Lunatic Asylum, he wrote the now famous poem, “I Am!” In its entirety, John Clare’s “I Am!” contains rich language that elaborates upon the struggles of identity, depression, and the inert longing for both the innocence of childhood and the everlasting peace of death.
“ I am” is a poem based around a life that has not been lived to the full a life that John Clare has had to struggle through, a sad regretful lonely life. It is also about lost love and death of a love one or possibly him, a day when you go to heaven to either meet a loved one or just a place to rest.
The first stanza is about him been alone and people been unaware that he is there, friends forgetting him “ my friends forsake me” and memories he once had are been lost the fun happier times of his life he is forgetting. “ A self consumer of my woes” this is John Clare’s loneliness. The last line of the first stanza “ And yet I am, and live-like vapours tossed.” This is him talking about his life as one of no a full existence and having no control nor feeling any pain.
The second stanza is about loneliness and hearing people talking behind his back saying horrible and somewhat taking Clare into a life, which isn’t so real after all “ a nothingness of scorn and noise”. His life he describes as a “Shipwreck” this is the end of life, as he knows it. He is talking about his life like a ride going up and down with emotions

| Posted on 2009-05-04 | by a guest

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THis poem talk s about life in the fast lane. You have to enjoy enjoy things ;ike a bowl of rice when in fact, life is short and dark.

| Posted on 2009-02-24 | by a guest

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I agree with the last guest. The poem is a generalized look at life and finding that all the events and cares that a person experiences is really self-contained. You live alone and you die alone. It also seems true that this poem has been written toward the end of his life, but if not, then he certainly lived a morose and frustrated life. The biographical information may be important to this poem, but it appears that it is a summation of life, rather than a poem discussing a difficult time. A student made me aware of this poem. That in itself is a good thing for me.

| Posted on 2009-01-07 | by a guest

.: Political Anthrapology :.

Morgan Richard Tsvangirai (English IPA: x Shona IPA: x born March 10, 1952) is a trade unionist, human rights activist, and President of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), the majority[1] party in Zimbabwe. Tsvangirai contested the 2008 presidential election results, which showed him winning only 47.9% of the votes cast, necessitating a run-off vote against incumbent Robert Mugabe. Tsvangirai's MDC party released its own set of results[2] showing an outright win over Mugabe with 50.3%.

| Posted on 2008-06-06 | by a guest

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To see the full essay, go to and you can find the essay on the calendar underneath the date of April 07, 2008.

| Posted on 2008-04-16 | by a guest

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All throughout time, man has been plagued with carrying the heavy burden of existence and identity on his mind and on his shoulders. As humans and intellectuals, there exists a time in life where questions of existence and identity crawl into one’s mind. However, one dares not ponder too long, for such idle thoughts can seduce a man into the unwelcoming arms of madness. John Clare had already crossed the threshold of madness before succumbing to the dangerous assessments of identity and self awareness. During Clare’s institutionalization within the confines of the Northampton General Lunatic Asylum, he wrote the now famous poem, “I Am!” In its entirety, John Clare’s “I Am!” is a paradox containing rich language that elaborates upon the struggles of identity, depression, and the inert longing for both the innocence of childhood and the everlasting peace of death.
“I Am!” is in theory similar to Stephen Crane’s “A Man Said to the Universe”, in the manner that in both poems, both speakers are stating their existence. Stephen Crane’s speaker says, “Sir I exist!” but is faced is with a response of, “However, the fact has not created in me a sense of obligation.” The main differences in the two poems are that Crane’s speaker makes his declaration to the universe to allow everyone to know he exists. Clare doesn’t make it clear to who the declaration is intended for. The idea of Clare declaring, “I Am!” to himself can be easily embraced after considering Clare’s isolation from society. This declaration could be looked at as Clare’s reminder to himself that he still exists within the boundaries of reality and that he is more than a ghost of his poetry and of his past. Mark Storey provides a different approach to looking at the purpose of Clare’s poem. Storey argues that Clare wrote the poem to capture his “lostness and confusion” in his search for “self-identity and meaning to existence” (194). Paul Dean’s idea of Clare’s “desperate frustration with the limitations of physical existence” conforms nicely with Storey’s argument (97). The idea of Clare’s poem being a declaration and an attempt in self capture can be combined to create a theory that Clare wrote “I Am!” in a moment of weakness and confusion, when he wasn’t sure of anything other than his “I am-ness”, to remind himself that he still exists (Storey 194).
The first stanza reflects greatly upon the depression that Clare faced in the solitude of the asylum. Clare doesn’t hesitate to speak of his depression by stating in the first line, “I am – yet what I am, none cares or knows;” At the time, Clare wasn’t diagnosed for it, but he suffered from manic depression or bipolar disorder, causing him to experience alternating cycles of depression or over-excitement (Haldane 42). This would show in Clare’s work, for at times Clare could write enough poems to fill a book within the limits of only a week, and then abruptly discontinue his writings for an elongated period of time (Haldane 42). In the second line of Clare’s poem, as a follow up to the first, Clare says, “My friends forsake me like a memory lost;” Clare alliterates the image of “being abandoned by his friends” with “friends forsake” (Porter 273). There isn’t much evidence shows Clare having more than just a handful of friends in his life. What friends Clare did have most likely didn’t care much for him being institutionalized for him to speak of his friends in such a pessimistic manner. There couldn’t have been much support from

| Posted on 2008-04-07 | by a guest

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This poem was written when John Clare was put in a private mental asylum. “My friends forsake me like a memory lost” This poem records directly the feeling of alienation and a need for freedom. With a constant assertion of “I Am” throughout, which shows an emphatic awareness of self, but at the same time undermines this by drawing attention to the difference of existence and living, in lines such as “And yet I am, and live – Like vapors tost”. This poem expresses not only a mental state, but the longing of the last stanza, seeming impossible to adhere to due to humanity and a deep need for community and peace destroyed by greed.

In the first line of the poem he explains how he exists, but no one cares. “I am -- yet what I am none cares or knows;” He also explains how he has been thrown about by love, because at that time in his life, before he went to this asylum, he believed that he would be reunited with the first woman he loved. When he went to find her, he would not believe when her family told him she had died three years earlier, claiming that he had children with her and that he was married to her as well as with his wife Patty.

He tells the reader how he believes the world is nothing but scorn and noise, where there is no sense of life or its joys, and how all his esteems have been wrecked. He explains how the people he loved the most were acting stranger than the rest.

In the third stanza he tells us about how he wants to be in a place where man has not yet touched, and where woman has not felt emotion, where he can be in a God, his “creator”, in peace. A place where he can live like he did in his childhood, “untroubled”, and where he can sleep with the grass below him and the sky above him. Here he is speaking of a place like the Garden of Eden, a Utopia, a paradise where he can be free. Which leads me to think it is possible that he was feeling suicidal at the time hence “There to abide with my creator God”, as if the land that he dreams of is heaven.

The poem is full of religious connotations, fitting with the Romantic period. One such connotation would be “The grass below - above the vaulted sky.” as “vaulted” is often used to refer to the wooden beams used in the ceiling in a cathedral.

With its somber tone, this poem makes the reader try to see the world through his perspective, but once again, it is a person’s experience that would allow them to be able to relate to this poem.


| Posted on 2007-11-20 | by a guest

.: :.

This poem was written when John Clare was put in a private mental asylum. “My friends forsake me like a memory lost” This poem records directly the feeling of alienation and a need for freedom. With a constant assertion of “I Am” throughout, which shows an emphatic awareness of self, but at the same time undermines this by drawing attention to the difference of existence and living, in lines such as “And yet I am, and live – Like vapors tost”. This poem expresses not only a mental state, but the longing of the last stanza, seeming impossible to adhere to due to humanity and a deep need for community and peace destroyed by greed.

In the first line of the poem he explains how he exists, but no one cares. “I am -- yet what I am none cares or knows;” He also explains how he has been thrown about by love, because at that time in his life, before he went to this asylum, he believed that he would be reunited with the first woman he loved. When he went to find her, he would not believe when her family told him she had died three years earlier, claiming that he had children with her and that he was married to her as well as with his wife Patty.

He tells the reader how he believes the world is nothing but scorn and noise, where there is no sense of life or its joys, and how all his esteems have been wrecked. He explains how the people he loved the most were acting stranger than the rest.

In the third stanza he tells us about how he wants to be in a place where man has not yet touched, and where woman has not felt emotion, where he can be in a God, his “creator”, in peace. A place where he can live like he did in his childhood, “untroubled”, and where he can sleep with the grass below him and the sky above him. Here he is speaking of a place like the Garden of Eden, a Utopia, a paradise where he can be free. Which leads me to think it is possible that he was feeling suicidal at the time hence “There to abide with my creator God”, as if the land that he dreams of is heaven.

The poem is full of religious connotations, fitting with the Romantic period. One such connotation would be “The grass below - above the vaulted sky.” as “vaulted” is often used to refer to the wooden beams used in the ceiling in a cathedral.

With its somber tone, this poem makes the reader try to see the world through his perspective, but once again, it is a person’s experience that would allow them to be able to relate to this poem.


| Posted on 2007-11-20 | by a guest

.: I Am :.

John Clare wrote this poem during the last years of his life. At the time he wrote this poem he had been confined to a lunatic asylum. He appears to have felt lost and abandoned and he was clamouring for the outside world, a desperation to go to unchartered places. I think it is possible that he was feeling suicidal at the time hence "There to abide with my creator God", as if the land that he dreams of is heaven. The poem is full of religious conotations, fitting with the Romantic period. One such conotation would be "The grass below - above the vaulted sky." as "vaulted" is often used to refer to the wooden beams used in the ceiling in a cathedral.

| Posted on 2007-09-23 | by a guest

.: I am :.

There doesn't appear to be any analysis as yet.
Very roughly, I believe it is the result of frustration, of all the petty complexities in life. The last stanza expresses a desire to return to simplicity, as in 'childhood', 'untroubled' and able to be with his 'creator' without any 'noise' or other distractions, such as romantic emotions.
any other ideas? anyone out there? my exam's tomorrow, and i've not looked at this poem before.

| Posted on 2007-05-24 | by a guest