"Vaulted" Interpretations by Clare and Shelley

 John Clare's poem, "I am," with its distinctive natural tone contrasts with Shelley's classic poem, "Ode to the West Wind," an invocation to a higher, imaginary power. While Clare works to undermine authority, Shelley strengthens it. This difference is seen in how the two poets use the word "vaulted" in their poems. In the last line of Clare's poem, "The grass below- above the vaulted sky," he implies an inversion of the natural order with the earth being on top of the sky. And the word "vaulted" being used to describe the sky has a canonical and traditional sense to it, one that the poet clearly wants to undermine by inversion with the earth. The narrator is "untroubled" only when he can surpass or forego the "vaulted sky."

However, Shelley uses "vaulted" with different implications than Clare. In line 26 of Ode, "vaulted with all thy congregated might" is a positive characteristic of the West Wind. The West Wind closes in the vapors in the vault of the "closing night." As a figure of authority in the poem, the West Wind has this power to be the one with the ability to vault things. Shelley's use of the word has no negative implications and it only strengthens the authority of the West Wind.

Another difference of authority between the two poems is that for Clare, no outside force is needed to create any internal movement for him. Clare himself is like "vapours tost/ Into the nothingness of scorn and noise"(6-7). He himself is his sole destroyer/creator. But for Shelley, the "vapours" are not used as a metaphor for internal change, but exist in themselves and are controlled by the West Wind, rather than the narrator.

So, while Clare internalizes all his changes and desires, Shelley externalizes them onto the natural world as a "leaf, wave, or cloud" (53). Ultimately, while Shelley is strengthening authority, he is weakening his own role in the poem. But Clare does the opposite; by undermining authority, he strengthens his own powers.

Jinny Ahn