Love is an effective/powerful subject for poetry. Compare two poems that you have found to be effective/powerful and comment on how the poets have achieved their effects.

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Love is an effective/powerful subject for poetry. Compare two poems that you have found to be effective/powerful and comment on how the poets have achieved their effects.

 The two poems I have chosen to analyse are ‘Fist Love’ and ‘Ballad’ both poems are examples of pre-19th century love poetry.

 Love poetry is timeless, as love itself does not change over the ages. So, this type of poetry is just as relevant now as it was when it was written. Love has been the focus of poetry for many years mainly because it is a feeling which is common to everyone. The Greeks arranged Love into four different categories; Storge: The liking of an object, Eros: Physical attraction, Philia/Philos: Brotherly love and Agape: Un-conditional love. The two poems I have chosen to analyse, ‘First Love’ and ‘Ballad’  demonstrate the love the Greeks named ‘Eros’ both convey imagery of love based on physical attraction.

 John Clare the poet of the poem ‘First Love’ grew up in extreme poverty, and was working on the land from the age of seven. He had little access to books, but he developed a great memory for the folk ballads he heard from adults. His health both physical and mental began to fail in the middle age. He suffered from delusions and ended his life in an asylum in Northampton.

 His humble background made it impossible for him to marry the daughter of a wealthy farmer. This disappointment made a lasting impression and surely he expressed this in the love poetry he wrote.

 The poet of the poem ‘Ballad’ has remained anonymous; therefore we can not establish only true reasons why they may have written the poem. Yet the emotive language used gives us strong clues to why.

 ‘Ballads’ have been told for generations. Before most people could read or write many songs and poems were passed down from one generation to the next by word of mouth- the aural/oral tradition. The original authors were never identified and each story told in speech or song could go through many minor changes while different variations of the original story could be found in different parts of the country. One of the traditional themes of this ‘Ballad’ was the dishonest lover.

 ‘First Love’ and ‘Ballad’ both share the same subject which is love based on physical attraction. Both poets speak of their love for someone. However, although the subjects of the poems are the same, the theme of the two poems differs considerably. ‘First Love’ is about the poet John Clare unfolding the story of his first love, this is revealed straight away to the reader by the title and the first line in the poem.

‘I ne’er was struck before that hour.’

The quotation above confirms that Clare had never felt or experienced such love and emotions before. This builds excitement from the reader because we call upon our own experiences of our first love to guess at the details. And we remember and recall our first love and hopefully remember someone special and that moment in time were we had no worries for life seemed to be just fine.

 ‘Ballad,’ however is a poem recounting a story of deception. A young, innocent girl writes of her betrayal of a dishonest lover.

‘And I sought him, he never came.’

 The quote shown above, conveys imagery of the young girl looking for her love and needing her love but he was never there, he never returned. The usage of the word ‘sought’ makes this line of the poem very effective and as a result has a long lasting effect on the reader. The word ‘Sought’ is much more effectual than the word ‘Looked.’ We get a sense as the reader that she not only looked for her love but she needed and required him and without him the outcome would be fatal.

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 So as you can see the opening effects of both poems impose very different impressions on the reader. ‘First Love’ has left the reader excited, almost thrilled at the prospect of hearing about Clare’s first love.

 Conversely the poem ‘Ballad’ has evoked a sympathetic, yet judgmental reaction from the reader as it has left us shocked as we feel the young girl is vulnerable and in danger without her love. But we feel that maybe it was her fault for she was the one that rushed into the relationship, so as a result we judge her.

 As the poems continue ...

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