Analysis of First Love by John Clare

As Wendy Martin says “the poem leaves the reader with painful impression of a woman in her mid-fifties, who having lost her domestic comforts is left to struggle with despair. Although her loss is mitigated by the promise of the greater rewards of heaven, the experience is deeply tragic.” (75)

“Life is change. Growth is optional. Choose wisely” (Unknown). People change and grow because of the challenges and conflicts they have in life. A person I know that has changed and grown a lot from a conflict is my mom because a couple years ago she ripped a tendon in her back, and she had to get many surgeries and wasn’t able to walk for a while. She grew a lot from that experience and now she can walk and is still getting better. In “The Street” by Richard Wright the young boy narrator has to overcome his fears and fight some thugs in order to buy his mom groceries. He faces an incredible challenge that makes him have to change extremely quickly. In “First Love” by Judith Ortiz Cofer the girl narrator has a crush on a boy that is a couple

Aubrey’s mum turned up and told Aubrey that she didn’t come because some days are too hard

Starting with hyperboles, which she uses in lines six and seven, she exaggerates to show how much of an opposite she is. She also talks about how she’s “freezing” when she’s really not. Then, as well as hyperbole, she uses personification talking about how the temperature is “trying to pass fifty-five” when the temperature can’t have human qualities. This helps the imagery to explain how you would feel if you were there. It helps the theme by showing how cold it is and what each of the two lovers would do, which are opposites. Overall, the figurative language is the poem helps Blossom to make a point on the

Rossetti opens the poem with a tone of regret, hinting at the nature of her regretful actions through flowers and their symbolism. She feels she was “a fool to pluck my rose too soon”; roses are the most classic flower, used universally to symbolize purity and true love, and Rossetti uses the flower to symbolize her profound regret of losing her chasteness too soon, something she feels has incriminated and isolated her. She also expresses the feeling with her guilt over “…snap[ping] my lily”, which represents chastity, innocence, and piety, relating back to her faith and how it was an large part of her lifestyle, further adding to her guilty conscience as she ruins her flowers, literally herself, because her actions are seen as crimes in the Bible. She damages her reputation in the eyes of a hypocritical and ruthless society by forsaking and corrupting herself, and she will spend the rest of her life repenting giving up everything considered important about a woman in Victorian era. “Plucking [her flowers] too soon” represents her regret in loss of virginity too soon, although the definition of virginity is not used so literally here, it metaphorically represents her value, that is, her value to her prospective husband. She feels she is now defiled; society will undoubtedly place blame on her because she is a woman and is expected to be reserved and coy, never to be bold. Her flowers have been ruined; she no longer holds any importance or value.

Similarly, the phrase ‘the next moment, you are no longer there’ is perhaps suggesting that he was shocked at seeing her go so suddenly. However, the fact that when she next reappears she is ‘perfectly framed shows us that the joy of seeing her after thinking she has gone for good is a surprise to him. ‘Fragrant survivors of last night’s frost’ shows us that the flowers are strong, which is a suggestion that their love is strong. In the fourth verse the phrase ‘my heart misses a beat at love for you’ shows us that the love was so intense that time seemed to stop too. ‘Knowing a time will come when you are no longer there’ shows us that he is not looking forward to that time and that he knows it is inevitable. ‘Meanwhile let us make sure we clasp each shared moment’ shows us that he wants to make sure they use their time together wisely, and ‘in cupped hands, like water we dare not spill’ shows us they know that their time together is precious.

In the final stanza, he makes the reader sad as he assumes the inevitable will happen and she will die. He expresses this through metaphors such as a “black figure in her white cave”, which is a reference to the bright white hospital rooms and although he is the black figure he thinks she just sees a shadow which could be the grim reaper or even death himself, coming to end her journey. No one wants to deal with the sorrow of losing a loved one for good, as

The poem’s structure as a sonnet allows the speaker’s feelings of distrust and heartache to gradually manifest themselves as the poem’s plot progresses. Each quatrain develops and intensifies the speaker’s misery, giving the reader a deeper insight into his convoluted emotions. In the first quatrain, the speaker advises his former partner to not be surprised when she “see[s] him holding [his] louring head so low” (2). His refusal to look at her not only highlights his unhappiness but also establishes the gloomy tone of the poem. The speaker then uses the second and third quatrains to justify his remoteness; he explains how he feels betrayed by her and reveals how his distrust has led him

The structure of this poem is rather notable. It mimics the structure of a Clare sonnet, fourteen lines, iambic pentameter, AABBCCDDEEFFGG rhyme scheme. Both Italian and Shakespearean sonnets tended to be love poems. However, the Clare sonnet doesn’t quite fit properly with either, it’s a touch more simplistic in nature, which lends this poem something akin to irony. This poem isn’t simply a love poem, it’s poem about the frustration of love along with being a cautionary tale. It has a more

why he stopped, may be he doesn’t know himself. May be, he is comparing the beauty of nature to something, but on a symbolic level, the snow strongly reminds me that the poem is set in winter, and which is also widely represented as the image of death.

For this essay I will be unraveling two poems to find a deeper meaning from The Norton Anthology of World Literature, Volume B. The two poems are “A Lover’s Prize” by Beatrice of Dia and “The Wound of Love” written by Heinrich von Morungen. Heinrich and Beatrice are considered to be medieval lyric poets; however, Beatrice was a medieval lyric poet from France and they are known as troubadour. Beatrice just so happened to be apart of southern France’s trobairitz which was just a tribute to some of the best troubadour of their time. She was married to the Count of Viennois, Guilhem de Poitiers but she was having an affair with another troubadour who went by the name Raimbaut d’Orange and their poetic style was quite similar. However, when it comes to Heinrich von Morungen not much is known about him. From the little we know about Heinrich, we find that, his style of writing fit into the category of Minnesang which means “songs of love”. His lyrics (that have survived) are also some of the greatest in early German history. Nonetheless, these writers have both put forth some impressive work.

I interpreted this poem as a very sad one. A love unrequited by the pursued. In the first two lines the poem tells you to forget about the love you share and hear a tale of this. Not to literally forget, but possibly put aside. The man is a winter breeze, cold and rough and sort of roams the land. The woman is a window flower, shut off from the outside. This sets up the separation.

The beginning of the poem is a very peaceful, “Blest Age!” (1), with “Purling Stream[s]” (1), “an Eternal Spring” (5), and “wanton Gods of Love” (15). This takes place in the world before the rise of mankind, much like the biblical Garden of Eden. In this flowery place, nature triumphs with love. Nature is referred to as a feminine idea, “Virgin Earth;/ Who yielded of her own accord her plenteous Birth” (32-33). This can relate to the idea or allusion of Mother Nature, as Earth is commonly referred to as female. Behn tells the reader how roses, as a symbol for virtuousness, live in prosperous morning dew. In this peaceful and young world, two lovers are free to “all their Joyes and

In the second stanza, the poem compares his love to a plant that does not bloom. The flowers are hidden deep within the plant. The text is expressing that while most would not appreciate a flower that does not bloom, the love described here goes far beyond that of anyone else’s. Inner beauty is admired. The narrator is not ashamed of his love. Yet, he feels as though he cannot compare her to anything of this world. He is entirely consumed by the spirit within her.

Owen 's usage of a metaphor, where he likens the girls ' flowers to the 'tenderness of patient minds ' is to me a representation of how like flowers, the inner strength that these young women have while waiting for the men to return is so beautiful and inspiring. However, flowers are also delicate and vulnerable. It is terribly hard to be strong all the time, and these young girls struggle constantly with their fears and their nightmarish thoughts. The