The Death of Thomas Chatterton

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The following poems are taken from a widely published sequence by the American poet, William Weaver,  in which each poem is based on the last words of various persons of notoriety. You will find below a selection relating to the world of literature and the arts. [Ed.]

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William Weaver volunteers with the Maryland Book Bank, CityLit, the Baltimore Book Festival, and was, until Covid, the writer-in-residence at the James Joyce Pub. He is the author of The Stars Undone (Duende Press, 1992), and provided the libretto for a symphony, Of Sea and Stars (2005), performed four times to date. Recently, he published his 150th prose poem since 2016.

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JOHN CLARE

I have lived too long. I want to go home.

The world spins, carrying me unwillingly. I feel caught
in its relentless expended energy, my own life pulled
past my wife…