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THE NATURAL.('John Clare')(Book Review)

The New Yorker

| October 27, 2003 | Lanchester, John | COPYRIGHT 2003 All rights reserved. Reproduced by permission of The CondÃ© Nast Publications Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)Copyright

Joyce Carol Oates on this year's dark-horse Booker Prize winner

In early 1860, a poetry fan from London called James Hipkins wrote to Dr. Wing, the superintendent of the Northampton General Lunatic Asylum, inquiring after the welfare of one of the inmates, the nature poet John Clare. The sixty-six-year-old poet's reply is one of the last things he wrote:

March 8th 1860Dear Sir, I am in a Madhouse & quite forget your Name or who you are you must excuse me for I have nothing to commu[n]icate or tell of & why I am shutup I dont know I have nothing to say so I conclude, yours respectfully

John Clare

Clare had been in the asylum for ...

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