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Introduction

What are the similarities and differences in the way love is presented in the poems? "First Love "and "Sonnet 43" both love to different depths using their narrative. The poem "First love" looks at the emotions evolving around sudden love while "Sonnet 43" focuses on the devotion and maturity of a more experienced lover. The opening rhetorical question in 'Sonnet 43' reflects on the narrator's ability to express and organize her feelings of love. She collates her own answer with "Let me count the ways", implying that the structure of the poem will be in the form of a list that charts her emotions of passionate devotion and positive obsession. ...read more.

Middle

By exaggerating each of his feelings the narrator implies that he has had an irrational response as he appears to believe that this one moment in life will scar him forever. This proposes that the poem's structure will take the shape of a turbulent emotional outpouring. Another difference between the two romantic poems is the types of love they are describing. In "First love", the narrarator sees love as something physical, describing all the effects love has on his body, such as "His [my] legs [that] refused to walk away", "Took his [my]eyesight quite away" and turned his face a "deadly pale". ...read more.

Conclusion

"I love thee to the level of every day's/most quiet need, by sun and candlelight." Her feelings are deeper and controllably obsessive. "First love" is a romantic love that is inspired by a brief visual attraction rather than the love that grows as a result of friendship and familiarity. In "Sonnet 43", positive words are used for describing the narrarators undying love for her object of desire. "I love thee to the depth and breadth and height /my soul can reach, when feeling out of sight". Her words give a much more sedated and calm impression than the free verses in "First Love". ...read more.

This student written piece of work is one of many that can be found in our GCSE Love Poetry section.