John Birtwhistle

"There are many thousands of poems about Death in the abstract. Philosophy about Death is a typical way of rendering it less real as an experience."

"Clare's essay was itself an attempt at popularity through essayistic journalism."

"A minor essay, but an unduly neglected document of Clare's predicament in 1824, a crucial year in his life as a poet."

"The essay was impelled by Clare's anxiety that his poems were slipping out of fashion."