First Love – Clare

The first 200 words of this essay...

Pre-twentieth century

Love poetry

First Love - Clare

This poem is about someone experiencing love for the first time. "I ne'er was struck before that hour With love so sudden and so sweet."

The poet compares the face of the woman to a flower "Her face it bloomed like a sweet flower." He describes how the feeling of love affects him physically "my face turned pale...my legs refused to walk away." He describes his life as "turned to clay."

The word 'heart' is used several times in the poem. In line 4 he talks of his heart being stolen, in line 14 his words came from his heart, and in line 23 he talks about how his heart will never be the same again.

He uses the images of nature e.g. trees, bushes and flowers to describe how the love he feels changes his views "The trees and bushes round the place seemed midnight at noonday."

First Love is split into 3 stanzas each with 8 lines alternating in rhyme.

Each stanza represents a different state of mind. The first stanza represents the physical impact the woman has on him. In the