Compare the ways poets have written about love, bringing out different aspects of the theme

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Compare the ways poets have written about love, bringing out different aspects of the theme

Yaseen Radwan

The poems I have chosen to compare are 'First Love' by John Clare, 'How do I Love Thee' by Elizabeth Barrett Browning, 'A Birthday' and 'Remember' by Christina Rossetti, and 'La Belle Dame Sans Merci' by John Keats.

In John Clare's poem 'First Love' we see love as an instant attraction and he says it was a love 'so sudden.' It also highlights the aspect of unrequited love as the relationship between the poet and the person he loves has never even started. In fact he is hardly noticed as we can see from the rhetorical question 'And when she looked 'what could I ail?'' It is only in his own mind that she even perceived his love for her.

She seemed to hear my silent voice

And loves appeal to know (L19, 20)

This depicts love as obsessive and selfish. A love that exists only in the mind of the lover. John Clare is writing as an adult looking back to his youthful past, to his 'First Love'. It is an innocent love toward a girl he