The poems I have chosen to compare are 'First Love' by John Clare, 'How do I Love Thee' by Elizabeth Barrett Browning, 'A Birthday' and 'Remember' by Christina Rossetti, and 'La Belle Dame Sans Merci' by John Keats.

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English Coursework

The poems I have chosen to compare are ‘First Love’ by John Clare, ‘How do I Love Thee’ by Elizabeth Barrett Browning, ‘A Birthday’ and ‘Remember’ by Christina Rossetti, and ‘La Belle Dame Sans Merci’ by John Keats.

In John Clare’s poem ‘First Love’ we see love as an instant attraction and he says it was a love ‘so sudden.’ It also highlights the aspect of unrequited love as the relationship between the poet and the person he loves has never even started. In fact he is hardly noticed as we can see from the rhetorical question ‘And when she looked ‘what could I ail?’’ It is only in his own mind that she even perceived his love for her.

She seemed to hear my silent voice

And loves appeal to know (L19, 20)

This depicts love as obsessive and selfish. A love that exists only in the mind of the lover. John Clare is writing as an adult looking back to his youthful past, to his ‘First Love’. It is an innocent love toward a girl he has only just seen, yet feels instantly transfixed and ensnared by. The very first line of Clare's poem declares ‘I ne'er was struck before that hour’ The use of the word struck gives us an image of someone unexpectedly being hit by a spell or by one of cupids arrows, leaving him unable to resist falling in love. It is a romantic love that is inspired by a brief visual attraction rather than the love that grows as a result of long acquaintance or familiarity. This is clear from the lack of any concrete or detailed description of the object of his love, other than to say ‘Her face blossomed like a sweet flower’ and ‘I never saw so sweet a face’. Instead, he describes in great detail the effect that this ‘sudden’ love had on his own being. He describes his face turning ‘deadly pale’ his legs ‘refused to walk’ his blood rushing back so that it ‘took my sight away’ and ‘blood burnt round my heart’.

From this description we see that ‘love’ has a very strong physical impact within his own body. This may reflect the changes that occur within a young man and how love can be confused with the first awakening of passion and desire for the opposite sex. These new feelings seem to be a shock to the young John Claire’s system and have left him a changed person. So much so that he cannot return to the state he was once in.

My heart has left its dwelling place

And can return no more (L23, 24)

This can have two meanings. The first is that his love now belongs to that girl and can never belong to another. But again it may indicate the loss of innocence in the sense that his passions and desires have been awoken and his heart can never again return to the dwelling place of innocence.

In Elizabeth Browning’s ‘How Do I Love Thee’ we see a much more mature and sensitive depiction of love in the traditional style of the sonnet. It explores the depth and greatness of love felt by one human being for another. Although the love she expresses in this poem is just as passionate as John Clare’s ‘First Love’, it does not shout about the pain or suffering it brings, but has a quiet passion and strength. This is reflected in the rhythm and rhyme scheme that conveys a much more thoughtful and sedate type of love than that depicted in the free verses of John Clare.

I love thee to the level of every day’s

Most quiet need, by sun and candlelight. (L5, 6)

It is not a love based on sudden or obsessive attraction, but is much deeper and draws its strength from intimate knowledge of the object of her love, her husband Robert. This love is also spiritual and she declares,

I love thee to the depth and breadth and height

My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight (L2, 3)

 She uses language that evokes an almost religious atmosphere with words such as ‘Grace’, ‘Praise’, ‘faith’ and ‘saints’ giving love a pure and holy sanctity that is above mere passions of the flesh. She says’

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I love thee freely, as men strive for right;

I love thee purely, as they turn from Praise. (L7, 8)

Here Elizabeth Browning highlights the moral and virtuous aspects of love. She is making reference to man’s freewill and his capacity to do both good and evil and that the most righteous and worthy of all human endeavours is to choose freely to strive for what is good and right. She then equates this highest of all acts in God’s sight, with the use of her own freewill to choose to love her husband.

She then highlights ...

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