Write about three poems you have studied on the theme of love. Compare and contrast how the poets treat this theme and discuss your reactions to each poem.

Throughout the poem the poet has used brackets. In the brackets it shows her secret hopes, tells us of her real feelings and tells us what is going to happen between them. This poem is circular as it begins and ends with friends. It is of a slower pace compared to the other two poems. The poet takes a reflective mood/attitude on this theme and uses good language to portray it. Her implied message is that each person is ultimately alone and selfish. She expects to be emotionally damaged by the inevitable hurt and jealousy. In the end she is prepared to settle for friendship rather than true love.

How Do I Love Thee? is an older poem compared to the Thickness Of Ice. It was written in the 1800’s by Elizabeth Barrett Browning. It is a formal poem as it was written in older times. The poet takes a positive look on the theme of love and there is a positive assertion of passion and enthusiasm. Her attitude is excited, exuberant, and extravagant towards the love described in the poem. At the beginning of the poem the style is conversational, the question is answered and there is a sense of situation which is upheld. There is lightness in this poem compared to the Thickness Of Ice because each is confident in the love of one another. It is a very sincere poem as it is about love and her love for him. In the first part of the poem she speaks of their love as something elevated and important. A spiritual experience. In the second part of the poem she says how loving him is what she needs. She has passion and displays modesty towards him, “turn from praise.” In the poem the poet uses the word ‘thee.’ This is an old fashioned word used in the Bible. This is a deliberate attempt to suggest intimacy as it is a spiritual experience. There is a spiritual level to this poem compared to The Thickness of Ice. The use of ‘thee’ and abstract nouns for example ‘praise’ portray this level. It shows how the love between the poet and the other person isn’t dealing with everyday feelings.

The poem ends with her saying, “And, if God choose, I shall but love thee better after death.” This means that if he dies she will still love him and if she dies, she will still love him in eternity.

The poem, in total is very rhetorical. It is also repetitive which emphasises feeling and how intense the feelings are. There has also been use of alliteration, “purely…praise…passion” and hyperbole, ‘breath, smiles, tears, of all my life!’ The tone of the poem is confident and certain.

First Love is the oldest poem out of the three. It was written by John Clare. The poem is about how the poet fell in love with a woman but nothing ever happened between the two of them, due to the differences in class between them. It was a case of love at first sight. John Clare wasn’t well off and he was at the lower end of society. He fell in love with the daughter of a very wealthy family. The poem itself is simple with an even structure. In it, the poet deals with two aspects of love, love at first sight and unrequited love. The first stanza refers to this first love. It is physical and dramatic, ‘sudden…struck…sweet.’ He describes the woman as a ‘sweet flower.’ These words convey the virtual state of shock he is in. There is a big impact on John Clare as he says, she ‘stole my heart away complete.’ He describes his physical effects due to the woman’s presence. ‘My face turned pale…my legs refused to walk away…my life and all seemed to turn to clay.’ This at first glance may convey John Clare as shallow as he falls in love by appearance, but he is simply deeply impacted by this initial encounter with the woman he loves. The second aspect of love is unrequited love. This is where he loves her but she does not love him. He has a deep passion and infatuation with this woman and she doesn’t even know of his existence.

This poem is a good description of falling in love. It describes in detail the physical and emotional effects of love on a person. John Clare’s experience of falling in love is strange as the woman he had a passion for didn’t even pay him the slightest bit of attention. This is how it is different from the other two poems as the other person wasn’t feeling the same feelings. John Clare has been able to portray his feelings well by the words and language he has used in this poem.

Looking at these three poems show how poets’ attitudes to the theme of love can vary. My reactions to each poem varied. The Thickness Of Ice reflects disillusionment, How do I Love Thee shows how love can be elevated above everyday feelings and First Love showed how someone is able to fall deeply and passionately in love at first sight. Out of the three poems I can’t decide on a favourite as they all deal with different equally valid aspects of love.