Skip to main content
Kent Academic Repository

The Nightjar's Shriek: Nature's Variety in the Sonnets of John Clare and Charlotte Smith

Falk, Michael (2017) The Nightjar's Shriek: Nature's Variety in the Sonnets of John Clare and Charlotte Smith. John Clare Society Journal, 36 . pp. 31-48. ISSN 1356-7128. (KAR id:76744)

Abstract

In this article, I compare Smith and Clare’s sonnets to reassess our grand narratives of the Romantic sonnet revival. Using digital text analysis, I reveal distinctive features of their form and style. Both Smith and Clare give voice to new kinds of lyric consciousness in their sonnets. Smith’s sonnets explore unresolved contradictions of the psyche. Clare’s couplet sonnets set forth an objective and communal way of seeing the world. Text analysis reveals how subtly they remade the sonnet to embody these new ways of seeing. Both represent alternatives to Wordsworth’s “orbicular” notion of the sonnet’s form, and have great significance for our understanding of varieties of Romantic lyricism and Romantic selfhood.

Item Type: Article
Uncontrolled keywords: John Clare, Charlotte Smith, sonnets, perception, text anlaysis, digital humanities
Subjects: P Language and Literature > PN Literature (General) > PN441 Literary History
P Language and Literature > PR English literature
Divisions: Divisions > Division of Arts and Humanities > School of English
Depositing User: Michael Falk
Date Deposited: 24 Sep 2019 08:37 UTC
Last Modified: 29 Sep 2021 15:28 UTC
Resource URI: https://kar.kent.ac.uk/id/eprint/76744 (The current URI for this page, for reference purposes)

University of Kent Author Information

  • Depositors only (login required):

Total unique views for this document in KAR since July 2020. For more details click on the image.