“I Am!“ by John Clare read by Tom Hiddleston (12/02)

Tom Hiddleston reads poetry for Ximalaya FM: “The following is by English poet, John Clare, son of a farm labourer, he was often inspired by the natural world, but this, his most famous work, is a poem that deals with self awareness, loneliness, a longing for both the cradle and the grave, amid his struggle with mental health which led to his admittance to an asylum.“ “I Am!“ by John Clare I am—yet what I am none cares or knows; My friends forsake me like a memory lost: I am the self-consumer of my woes— They rise and vanish in oblivious host, Like shadows in love’s frenzied stifled throes And yet I am, and live—like vapours tossed Into the nothingness of scorn and noise, Into the living sea of waking dreams, Where there is neither sense of life or joys, But the vast shipwreck of my life’s esteems; Even the dearest that I loved the best Are strange—nay, rather, stranger than the rest. I long for scenes where man hath never trod A place where woman never smiled or wept There to abide with my Creator, God,