John Clare—The Voice of Freedom: The Original Sin of Economic Poverty with Rosemary Attack

In this episode, Shepheard-Walwyn host Jonathan Brown interviews Rosemary Attack, author of John Clare, Voice of Freedom, about the poet John Clare and the economic and psychological impact of the Enclosure Acts in 1809. Born in 1793, he had a patchy education, discovered poetry through Thomson’s The Seasons, and produced about 3,500 poems despite poverty and exploitative publishing practices. The conversation frames Clare’s work as a human account of the effects of enclosure—loss of common land, displacement into towns, and long-term unemployment—arguing that these changes caused material, emotional, and spiritual trauma and underpin modern economic problems. Visit our website: https://shepheardwalwyn.com/product/john-clare-voice-of-freedom/