Advances in psychiatric treatment (2012), vol. 18, 56–58 doi: 10.1192/apt.bp.109.007757 MINDREADING Recollections of journey from Essex by John Clare Femi Oyebode Femi Oyebode is Professor of In these few lines, with concision and economy, SUMMARY Psychiatry at the University of Clare conjures a world where the quality of light Birmingham and a consultant This article examines John Clare’s prose account changes and dims as if it were sound and he psychiatrist at the National Centre of his escape from High Beach Asylum in 1841. for Mental Health in Birmingham, effortlessly evokes a mood of melancholy with Clare has attracted attention for his nature poems UK. Correspondence Professor a few choice words. That was Clare’s gift: to be as much as for his humble, peasant background Femi Oyebode, University of unassuming yet sure-footed in his chosen territory. Birmingham, National Centre and his well-described mental illness, including his for Mental Health, The Barberry, asylum committals. Recollections of journey from In another poem, ‘The Skylark’, Clare wrote: 25 Vincent Drive, Edgbaston, Essex is unique as a piece of writing describing ‘And from their hurry up the skylark flies Birmingham B15 2FG, UK. Email: escape from an asylum and illustrating to some And o’er her half-formed nest with happy wings
[email protected] degree the mental state and experiences of a Winnows the air – till in the cloud she sings, psychiatrically ill person in England in the mid- Then hangs, a dust spot in the sunny skies, 1800s. And drops and drops till in her nest she lies’.