John Clare and ‘Will O Wisp’ July 1, 2022
Author: Beach Combing | in : Modern , trackback
John Clare (1793-1864) was a Northamptonshire poet from a poor rural background. He includes in his writings a series of supernatural experiences that are more usually filtered through the educated writing of Clare’s ‘betters’. As Chris Woodyard and I speak, on this month’s Boggart and Banshee, about spook lights, I thought I’d revisit Clare’s run in with Jenny Burnt Arse (as he sometimes called her) or Will o Whisp as here: it conveys the terror of balls of light better than any other written account I know. I’ve silently added some punctuation.
I saw [a ball of light] as if meeting me. I felt very terrified and on getting to the stile I determi[n]d to wait and see if it was a person with a lanthorn or a will o whisp. It came on steadily as if on the path way and when it got near me within a poles reach perhaps, as I thought, it made a sudden stop as if to listen me. I then believe[d] it was some one but it blazed out like a whisp of straw and made a cracking noise like straw burning, which soon convincd me of its visit. the luminous haloo that spread from it was of a mysterious terrific hue and the enlargd size and whiteness of my own hands frit me. the rushes appeard to have grown up as large and tall as w[h]alebone whips and the bushes seemd to be climing the sky. every thing was extorted out of its own figure and magnif[i]ed. the darkeness all round seemd to form a circalar black wall and I fancied that if I took a step forward I shou[l]d fall into a bottomless gulph which seemd garing all round me. so I held fast by the stile post till it departed away when I took to my heels and got home as fast as [I] could. so much for will o whisps.
So much, indeed. John Clare lived in a community that had many such experiences. I particularly like this one because it seems to be a last gasp of East Midlands fairy tradition.
I heard the old alewife at the Exeters arms behind the church (Mrs Nottingham) often say that she has see from one of her chamber windows as many as fifteen [balls of light] dancing in & out in a great company as if dancing reels & dances. On Eastwell Moor there is a great many there.
Others Balls of Light? drbeachcombing AT gmail DOT com
