John Clare "First Love" English Coursework
John Clare (1793 - 1864) John Clare was born to a poor labouring family in Northamptonshire. His education did not extend much beyond basic reading and writing, and he had to start work herding animals at the age of seven. This was not a promising start for a future writer, but in his early teens he discovered The Seasons by James Thomson and began writing poems himself. His first love, Mary Joyce, was the daughter of a wealthy farmer; their separation caused Clare great pain, and it contributed to the sense of loss which pervades much of his poetry.
First Love is one the famous love poems of our time. The fact that it is a male wrote this is extraordinary because you rarely see men writing such poems. In the first stanza of "First Love" the poet is telling the reader of how he felt at that time. The point of view is autobiographical meaning that his personal experience is written in first person. John Clare is writing about his experience that he has had about his "First Love". He uses word such as "bloomed" to demonstrate that he is ready for love. The type of love that he talking about is instantaneous and established by using words for example "struck" and "sudden". He also uses this phrase "And stole my heart away complete" emphasis that love is uncontrollable and you'll never know what will happen and when it will happen. The poet then describes the physical effects that love is having on him, the physical reaction. Where it also says "pale as deadly pale" demonstrates that it is not as positive now. The experience is so tense that it makes everything else around him seem unreal with is shown with these three lines "The trees and bushes /see a single thing". At the beginning of the first line in the third stanza "Are flowers the winter's choice?" the speaker has been damaged and hurt through exposing himself. The speaker has now realised that things didn't turn out quite as well as he thought. The theme therefore contains the pain caused by love and adds to the sense of loss and hurtfulness the poem involves. His love has taken him to another level of understanding. It is also sadness and the completely overwhelming nature of his experience and stresses that this is something he can never recover from which is showed by this sentence "My heart has left its dwelling place /and can return no more". He has been changed and displaced and this man is never going to be the same again.
John Clare (1793 - 1864) John Clare was born to a poor labouring family in Northamptonshire. His education did not extend much beyond basic reading and writing, and he had to start work herding animals at the age of seven. This was not a promising start for a future writer, but in his early teens he discovered The Seasons by James Thomson and began writing poems himself. His first love, Mary Joyce, was the daughter of a wealthy farmer; their separation caused Clare great pain, and it contributed to the sense of loss which pervades much of his poetry.
First Love is one the famous love poems of our time. The fact that it is a male wrote this is extraordinary because you rarely see men writing such poems. In the first stanza of "First Love" the poet is telling the reader of how he felt at that time. The point of view is autobiographical meaning that his personal experience is written in first person. John Clare is writing about his experience that he has had about his "First Love". He uses word such as "bloomed" to demonstrate that he is ready for love. The type of love that he talking about is instantaneous and established by using words for example "struck" and "sudden". He also uses this phrase "And stole my heart away complete" emphasis that love is uncontrollable and you'll never know what will happen and when it will happen. The poet then describes the physical effects that love is having on him, the physical reaction. Where it also says "pale as deadly pale" demonstrates that it is not as positive now. The experience is so tense that it makes everything else around him seem unreal with is shown with these three lines "The trees and bushes /see a single thing". At the beginning of the first line in the third stanza "Are flowers the winter's choice?" the speaker has been damaged and hurt through exposing himself. The speaker has now realised that things didn't turn out quite as well as he thought. The theme therefore contains the pain caused by love and adds to the sense of loss and hurtfulness the poem involves. His love has taken him to another level of understanding. It is also sadness and the completely overwhelming nature of his experience and stresses that this is something he can never recover from which is showed by this sentence "My heart has left its dwelling place /and can return no more". He has been changed and displaced and this man is never going to be the same again.
