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It is a common critical perception that following John Clare's flit to the village of Northborough in the spring of 1832 he responded to the countryside in a new way. The argument that his sense of identity and belonging was unsettled by the move and that this is reflected in the poetry of the Northborough period has been repeated in different ways by several critics. John Barr ell's view is still influential: 'At about the time of his removal to Northborough Clare wrote three remarkable poems, which between them reflect the ambiguous feelings towards the move that are expressed in the letters to Taylor, and also suggest the way in which Clare's poetry was to change during the next few years at Northborough.'1 These 'remarkable' poems were 'The Flitting' and 'Decay', both of which were published in The Rural Muse (1835), and 'Remembrances' (written in 1832), and it is still a default position for many that they are the key to Clare's poetic response to Northborough. For Tim Chilcott, the 'accents sounded now strike a more urgent and insistent note, modulating into a sustained tenor of regret for the passing away of youth and joy [...] the poems are no less than litanies for the restoration of lost time.'2 Jonathan Bate's account of the move in his biography focuses on these three poems although he does suggest that 'To the Snipe' iwritten in 1832) represents Clare's attempt to 'embed himself in his new environment.'3 Paul Chirico's recent study implies that Clare's ability to respond to nature was adversely affected by his new environment. It focuses on poems written before 1832, but introduces a brief discussion of 'Decay' in the context of the move to Northborough. Chirico demonstrates that the manner of representation in 'Decay' is complex, but the reader is still left with the impression that the move provoked a transformation in Clare's response to the natural world: 'The demise of poetry here seems to relate more to the fading of "fancys visions" [Middle Period iIV), p. 114, 1. 2) than of nature itself, but the later references to the poet's belief that the flowers of his youth were "from Adams open gardens" [Middle Period (IV), 1. 66) suggests a Fall from ideal beauty.'4
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