‘Lost in a wilderness of listening leaves’: on the woodland in the writings of John Clare.

This study is the first extensive engagement with the writings of John Clare’s writings which are focused on the woodland. It situates the woods in the wider debate over land reform during Clare’s lifetime, focusing on the ideology of Improvement and the effects of enclosure. Clare’s work is at times placed in conversation with that of other labouring class poets contemporary to him in the belief that these are valuable poetic voices who are most vulnerable to and most involved in these issues surrounding the changing landscape. The thesis moves from the debate over enclosure in the open fields into an examination of the appeal of the deep woodland, both as a place to dwell in and a place of wildness, looking at what the appeal of these spaces means for our sense of belonging and how communities and individuals define themselves within a landscape.