Lyric Poem · Life
I Am!
by John Clare · 1848
1I AM: yet what I am none cares or knows,
2 My friends forsake me like a memory lost;
3I am the self-consumer of my woes,
4 They rise and vanish in oblivious host,
5Like shades in love and death's oblivion lost;
6And yet I am, and live with shadows tost
Full-text availability follows the United States display decision recorded below; status can differ elsewhere.
“I Am!” by John Clare — quilloak.com/poems/i-am-john-clare
Quick facts
- Poem
- I Am!
- Poet
- John Clare
- Published
- 1848
- Length
- 18 lines
- Form
- Lyric Poem
- Themes
- Life, Sad, Strength
Craft notes
How this poem works
Measured from the text on this page, not copied from a summary. Counts are approximate: syllables and rhymes come from the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary, which models General American English, so dialect, older pronunciation, and performance can all change what you hear.
- Shape
- 18 lines · 3 sestets
- Line length
- Mostly 10-syllable lines (pentameter length).
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Text, source & rights
A traceable edition
Full-text display is based on the committed source record and a United States term-expiry review.
- Author record
- John Clare1793–1864
- Source record
- PoetryDBI Am! by john-clare, PoetryDB transcription
- Display decision
- Full text · United States · reviewed 2026-07-18
- Publication record
- 1848
- Text fingerprint
- SHA-256 5ea9c9273be6309e…
- Editorial handling
- Whitespace and stanza breaks normalized for web display; no material wording change recorded.