Clemo, Reginald John

▪ 1995

      ("JACK"), British poet (b. March 11, 1916, near St. Austell, Cornwall, England—d. July 25, 1994, Weymouth, Dorset, England), despite deafness (from about 1936) and recurrent attacks of blindness that began in childhood and left him sightless by 1956, wrote deeply personal poetry in which he explored the austere harshness of his Cornish birthplace, the spiritual influence of his physical handicaps, the quest that led to his religious conversion, and, eventually, the peace and happiness he found in his marriage at age 52. Clemo was the son of a clay-kiln worker and had no formal education after age 13. In 1948 he published a novel, Wilding Graft, and the first of two autobiographies, Confession of a Rebel, appeared in 1949. His first book of poems, The Clay Verge (1951), was imbued with a love of Cornwall and its people. He followed with a volume of theological essays, The Invading Gospel (1958), and two more volumes of poetry, The Map of Clay (1961) and Cactus on Carmel (1967). After Clemo's marriage to an art teacher in 1968, his poetry showed greater warmth and a sense of redemption. Later works include the verse collections The Echoing Tip (1971), Broad Autumn (1975), and Approach to Murano (1993) and an autobiography, The Marriage of a Rebel (1980).

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