First love is about John Clare’s first love and how he feels. The poem says “ her face it bloomed like a sweet flower/ and stole my heart away complete” this tells us that he is using traditional language to show that he loves her because he uses both “flower” and “stole my heart” this tells us how young and naive he really is. From these two lines the poet describes what love did to his body. He tells us that he could move “my legs refused to walk away” when she looks at him and asks “what could I ail?” this is when she looks at him and ask’s what’s the matter. He feels as if he has “turned to clay”.
The next two poems I will be comparing are “a birthday” and “how do I love thee”. A birthday was written by Christina Rossetti her religious beliefs resulted in the break-up of her engagement to the painter James Collinson. She wrote a sonnet sequence celebrating divine love over human in both religious and secular verse she displays a love of natural and pictorial imagery. The tone of a birthday is joyful. The narrator in the poem celebrates the birth of her love. The title is a metaphor for life beginning. The poem focuses on feelings and images of happiness. Rosseti uses nature to express her feelings of joy. Verse one contains a series of similes all beginning with, “My heart is like…” The similes describe beautiful natural things, appealing to the senses, sound, sight, touch, and taste.” An apple tree whose bows are bent with thickest fruit.” This means the branch is heavy with apples in the way her heart is heavy and full of love. At the end of the first verse she gives the reason for her happiness which is, “my heart is gladder than all these, because my love is come to me.” The narrator wants to celebrate her feelings she does this by asking for a platform (“dias”) to be raised made from exotic fabrics and materials. Rosseti’s use of orders at the beginning of lines implies that she is really keen to celebrate her joy, “raise me”, “Hang it”, “Carve it”, “Work it”. She wants to make it tangible for other people. The ending of the poem affirms her feelings of gladness. In the last two lines she suggests that her lover has come to her therefore she is happy: she repeats the last two lines of the first verse with a slight change, “Because the birthday of my life, is come, my love is come to me”.
How do I love thee was written by Elizabeth Barrat Browning. A famous poet of the day declared he lover her poems and her, and her passionate love for him changed her life. Her domineering (really strict) father banned her from marrying him so they decided to escape by eloping to Italy. They married in secret and true of his word her father disinherited her. The poet or narrator speaks to her lover. She tells him how much she loves him. She uses the sonnet form (a fourteen line rhyming poem with a regular rhythum and structure). She expresses her love using s series of abstract ideas, feeling or thoughts rather than things you can see or touch. This is why the poem can be difficult to understand at first.the poet opens the poem with a question which she answers herself; “let me count the ways”. She tries to measure her love, “I love thee to the depth and bredth and height my soul can reach.” He love will last beyond her life on earth “ for the ends of Being” but will also last longer than her after-life in heaven “ideal grace”. Therefore her love is eternal and timeless. She uses direct bold statements “I love thee freely” and I love thee purely” similes explain what she means. “as men strive for right” compares her love to a political struggle for justice.
“as they turn from praise” suggests that her love is modest and not boastful. Barrat browning changes the tone of the sonnet here, and explores the negative aspects of life she believes that love is made stronger by negative and sad experiences in life as well as happy ones, “I love thee with the passion put to use in my old griefs, and my childhood faith” in these lines she seems to be saying that she loves him with the powerful feelings of a child. “ I love thee with the breath, smiles, tears, of all my life.” The poet ends the poem by declaring that her love will continue after death and last forever.
I will be comparing “Villegiature” with “A Woman to her Lover” villegiature is written by Edith Nesbit her sense of independence and stron beliefs are shown in her poetry, she got married at a very young age. The title villegature means “holiday” in French. Nesbit could be indicating that the narrator is on holiday, or that her husband, lover or suitor is away, or that the narrator now feels free from the relationship and therefore symbolically refers to her new life as a holiday.
The narrator describes where she is, by her bedroom window and she sets a calm atmosphere by describing her environment in gentle tones. She is alliterating soft consonant sounds: “softly lighted” and refers to nature: “pear-tree bloom”. She speaks to the absent man about the night, before when she thought or dreamed of him “your ghost last night” she suggests that he interrupted her thoughts: “climbed uninvited”. It could be that the white curtains at her window resembled a ghostly figure, which made her think of the absent men. The narrator seems more negative when she refers to “your solid self” she could be bitter that he spoent so much time with his books rather than missing her: “had hardly missed me” but she returns to the imagined memory of the night before and describes him romantically climbing the wall to her window as romeo did in shakesphere’s play (romeo and Juliet). The soft tone resumes as she imagines him kissing her. “through the blossom climbed and kissed me”. The last line may jolt the reader because the tone is harsh, bitter and probably unexpected. The narrator appers quite modern in her dismissal of the lover. It is unclear though whether she is responding to being jilted or whether she is making the first move.
“A woman to her lover” we don’t know much about Christina Walsh she is the person who wrote this poem. At the time this poem was written women never had the same right as men. The poem opens on an angry tone with the use of a question. The poet clearly has a negative view of the way men treat women. She uses words which suggest slavery “vanquished”, boldslave “, “wearing out”, “drudgery”, silence”, and “servant”. She is prepared to reward her lover with love and marriage, as long as there is equality between them “ then o husband I am yours forever And our so-equal love will make the stars to laugh with joy” personification is used here to show how her happiness is so great that even the stars will share it. The final line of the poem implies that this idea of equality in marriage is favoured by god and brings you closer to him, “hand holing hand Until we reach the very heart of god.”
