Clare's Empire

The seventh full-length collection of poems from Jordan Smith, the Edward E. Hale Jr., Professor of English at Union College in Schenectady, New York, is a fantasia on the life and work of John Clare. Of his inspiration, Professor Smith writes: "Although it draws on Clare's writings and on the available biographies, it makes no pretense to biographical accuracy. Clare's poems interested me because of the combination of a natural sympathy, sometimes sentimental or conventional but often deep...