‘First Love’ is a story of unrequited love, and has a sombre tone whereas ‘Shall I compare thee…?’ is someone expressing their love and adoration for another person.
Another main contrast between the two poems is that ‘First Love’ has a much darker tone than ‘Shall I compare thee…?’. ‘First Love’ has a darker tone that ‘Shall I compare thee…?’ because it is about unrequited love. ‘Shall I compare thee…?’ has a much happier tone and paints a much nicer picture of love. Shakespeare is not only constantly complimenting his lover, but says that they will never be forgotten as the poem immortalises his friend and “this gives life to thee.”
In ‘First Love’ John Clare uses many comparisons to nature as it was typical of the time period in which the poem was written. He makes his lover seem innocent and beautiful. Clare also uses personification in ‘First Love.’ “And stole my heart away complete. My face turned pale as deadly pale, my legs refused to walk away.” This shows the depth of the feeling he has for her. In the second quatrain Clare describes how he can see nothing but her, which emphasises the strength of his feelings. “And blood burnt round my heart.” He uses alliteration, and the strength of the word “blood” shows that he has never felt like this before and believes he is deeply in love with her. In the third quatrain he uses rhetorical questions such as “Is loves bed always snow?” which are very resentful of the way he is feeling and makes the reader think. The last two lines of the ‘First Love’ use personification again to show that he feels strongly for her, and will never love anyone else.
The first line of ‘Shall I compare thee…?’ stars the poem by talking about the first idea the sonnet, which is the comparison between a woman and a “summers day”. In the next few lines the comparison is built on, “Thou art more lovely and more temperate”, because he is describing his lover in a way that could also describe summer. He then goes on to use rough winds a metaphor, “rough windes do shake the darling buds of Maie”. The second quatrain expands upon the comparison in the first quatrain. “Sometimes too hot the eye of heaven shines” which makes the comparison between the woman and a summer’s day more vivid. The second quatrain displays summer as only having inconsistent beauty. “And often is his gold complexion dim’d and every faire some-time declines, by chance, or natures changing course untrim’d.” in those lines, Shakespeare is personifying the sun. the third quatrain focuses on the eternal beauty of his lover. The poem says “But thy eternall Sommer shall not fade,” which is the poet using summer as a metaphor to display her beauty. The couplet concludes the sonnet by bringing together the themes of love presented. The poet compares his memory of his lover, which will last, to a summers day, which will not.
The first line of ‘First Love’
‘Shall I compare thee…?’ is a sonnet with four quatrains. A rhyming couplet and a rhyme scheme of ABABCDCDEFEFGG. This structure seems quite typical to this poet, and the time period in which is written. Like ‘Shall I compare thee…?’ Shakespeare wrote many other poems during the 16th century that are in sonnet form such as ‘Let Me Not.’ ‘Shall I compare thee…?’ uses each quatrain to put forth an idea and expand upon it, and then sum up the ideas in the poem within a rhyming couplet. ‘First Love’ on the other hand, is made up of three quatrains with a rhyme pattern ABABCDCDEFEFGHGHIJIJ, which gives the poem a very pleasing melody. One similarity between the two poems is that neither is written directly to the reader. ‘Shall I compare thee…?’ is in first person, and is written to Shakespeare’s friend, and is a tribute to them and their beauty.
These two poems are very different from one another, however each represent an idea of love. Although both poems are remarkably well written, I prefer ‘Shall I compare thee…?’ as I find it easier to understand.