John Clare and Penny Dreadful: A Perfect Union of Poetry and Television

 

I love Halloween. Supernatural and horror shows have always been a favorite of mine. I’m a huge fan of the Penny Dreadful series. It’s a unique take on the old horror stories: Dorian Gray, Frankenstein, vampires, and so on. Mind you, it’s not for the faint-hearted. But it’s extremely well-written, and the acting and casting is amazing. Vanessa Ives, the main character, played by the talented Eva Green, has been fighting a battle with demonic forces since she was a young girl. She is devout, kind, tough, and struggles to keep the forces of evil at bay.

An odd thing happened today. Poetry has been calling to me lately, and while searching in my old college literature book for William Butler Yeats’ “The Second Coming,” I happened upon another poem, called “Written in Northampton Asylum,” by John Clare.  The name sounded familiar, then…I got the chills.

Penny Dreadful came to mind immediately. There is a touching scene in the series where Vanessa is serving food in a dank, dark place to the sick and poor in London. Frankenstein’s monster, played with heartbreaking perfection by Rory Kinnear, was abandoned by Frankenstein and left to survive however he could. He is huddled in a corner. Vanessa brings him soup, sits down beside him, and treats him like the human being he never feels he is. The monster introduces himself as John Clare. This scene involves them reciting together, in mutual misery and heavy hearts, John Clare’s Poem, “Written in Northampton Asylum.” It is both heartrending and poignant.

Here’s the poem:

“I am! Yet what I am who cares, or knows?

My friends forsake me like a memory lost.

I am the self-consumer of my woes;

They rise and vanish, an oblivious host,

Shadows of life, whose very soul is lost.

And yet I am—I live—though I am toss’d

 

Into the nothingness of scorn and noise,

Into the living sea of waking dream,

Where there is neither sense of life, nor joys,

But the huge shipwreck of my own esteem

And all that’s dear. Even those I loved the best

Are strange--nay, they are stranger than me.

 

I long for scenes where man has never trod—

For scenes where woman never smiled or wept—

There to abide with my Creator, God,

And sleep as I in childhood sweetly slept,

Full of high thoughts, unborn. So let me lie,--

The grass below; above the vaulted sky.”

-----John Clare (1793-1864)

This poem reflects the despair and loneliness that Frankenstein’s monster feels, and also Vanessa Ives’ struggle to cast out the evil forces, end her torment, and be at one with her Creator.

 I am drawn to the human capacity to survive and find hope and joy even through horrific circumstances. The writing and acting of Penny Dreadful inspired me to create complex characters who fight to survive and search to find human warmth, love, and compassion.

I hope you enjoyed reading this poem.

My second book, Heartbeat of the Moon, is both a love story and a unique twist on a well-loved horror myth. It is out on audiobook now as well. Thanks for visiting.

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