First Love by John Clare
Analysis: John Clare describes his "First Love" in this poem by using mainly imagery. The poem also has an AB, AB rhyme scheme. The poem is written in six organized stanzas to explain him falling in love for the first time. In the beginning of the poem he states " I ne'er was struck before that hour with love so sudden and so sweet." From the following quote the reader can infer that his first love was love at first sight because of the choice of words used in the sentence such as, struck and sudden. Clare explains how he reacts to the sudden change in feelings and emotions and how his view on life seemed to change. "My life and all seemed to turn to clay", Clare referring to his his life as now clay symbolizes his life starting to change simply because clay has the ability to change from its original form to many different ones. "I could not see a single thing, words from my eyes did start. They spoke as chords do from string, ans blood burnt round my heart", from this line, Clare seems to want to express how he feels instead he looks at her and starts to think of everything he sees in his first love, of how beautiful she is and he wishes that he could say these things to her as if they were a song. Although in the poem when he encounters this love everything isn't great because it states, "Are flowers the winters choice, is love's bed always snow", this statement refers to love being cold and it can be inferred that his love began to change. At the end of the poem the poet expresses how his heart will no longer go back to being the same, therefore his first love changed him completely just as clay would when molded to another form.
Literary Devices: Hyperbole: "I never was struck before that hour" Clare exaggerates being struck so sudden filled with love, to emphasize his love at first sight.
Simile: "Her face it bloomed like a sweet flower", both Clare's lover and a flower are compared using the word like in the sentence. Clare's first love being compared to a sweet flower refers to her being beautiful.
Personification: "Words from my eyes did start". Clare's eyes are speaking, which is unusual because eyes cannot talk in any sort only blink and close.
Dramatic Irony: " Are flowers the winter's choice" is ironic because flowers do not grow in the winter only during the spring. Therefore this statement can refer to his lover giving him the cold shoulder and their love beginning to change because he refers to her as a flower earlier in the poem.
Alliteration: "With love so sudden and so sweet" Their is a repetition of the beginning consonant sounds such as, so, sudden, and sweet.
http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/first-love/
Literary Devices: Hyperbole: "I never was struck before that hour" Clare exaggerates being struck so sudden filled with love, to emphasize his love at first sight.
Simile: "Her face it bloomed like a sweet flower", both Clare's lover and a flower are compared using the word like in the sentence. Clare's first love being compared to a sweet flower refers to her being beautiful.
Personification: "Words from my eyes did start". Clare's eyes are speaking, which is unusual because eyes cannot talk in any sort only blink and close.
Dramatic Irony: " Are flowers the winter's choice" is ironic because flowers do not grow in the winter only during the spring. Therefore this statement can refer to his lover giving him the cold shoulder and their love beginning to change because he refers to her as a flower earlier in the poem.
Alliteration: "With love so sudden and so sweet" Their is a repetition of the beginning consonant sounds such as, so, sudden, and sweet.
http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/first-love/