I am de Jean Clare

1.       I Am (Jean CLARE) -   Poeme Analysis

1.           I am is a poem written by Jean Clare, a poet who lived in the 19th century, but who was well-known only from the 20th century. He came from a poor family and he had a simple life : he represented the English working-class. His poem is divide in three paragraph, the first paragraph is concentrating on himself, the second seems merge his past and his future and the third appear as his utopian vision of the world, or in other words, how he would like the world to be.

        So, the first paragraph is concentrating on himself. We can observe that he repeat ‘’I’’ four time, it is more than in others paragraph. Here he describes his life,  he explains to the audience that he his in a kind of depression. As far as I am concern I believe that he concentrate this paragraph on himself to pass a message : In spite of his friends forgot him, as he says at the line 2, he belong to exist. Maybe that have even a link with the title : ‘’Iam’’, he wants to convince his friends, and I think also himself, that he is alive, he exist and he is  sane. In fact, that is the result of his insanity, he try to fight it and this create a kind of contradiction between moments of sanity and moments of insanity in his writing.         Then, in the second paragraph he seems merge his past and his future. In a first time he talks about his future ,or how he sees his future, by speaking of ‘’dreams’’. The poet’s view of future seems very pessimistic, he looks like a man who have not future prospects, he compares his future as a place ‘’Where there is neither sense of life or joys’’. Afterwards, in a second time he tells us about his past. He seems moved by the abandonment of his friends : ‘’Even the dearest, that I loved the best are strange’’, in other words, by people who were close to him and who forgot him. I believe that the poet feels lonely and moreover, alone against his insanity. He foresees that he is going to die alone with his sickness. At the contrary of the first paragraph, here there is no confusion, he makes his life assessment clearly with the past in one side and the future in an other side.                         Finally, in the third paragraph, he  gives to the audience his utopian vision of the world. I think that in this part he confesses to the audience that he would like to start over his life : ‘’And sleep as I in childhood’’. He dreams of a world ‘’where man has never trod – A place where woman never smiled or wept’’, maybe he is so much disappointed by humans that he prefers to be alone in a place where there is no human track. I believe that he is a man who is disturb by the idea of death, he is afraid to die alone, but it’s also that death is the only way, for him, to overcome his insanity : ‘’Untroubling and untroubled where I lie’’. In this paragraph, God hold an important place, he is the only one who has not abandonned the poet, the only one to whom he assigns his trust : ‘’ There to abide with my creator, God’’.                         To conclude, this poem is a way, for the poet, to show to people who lived him,and to himself, that he is not insane. There is confusement between sanity and insanity. We can notice that the poet is moved by his friend’s abandonement and he is afraid to die alone. However, he see the death as a way to get out from the fight against his sickness.

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