What is the theme of the poem First love by John Clare?

What is the theme of the poem First love by John Clare?

This is a love poem that is about losing one’s heart to someone but not being able to articulate one’s feelings. John Clare’s first love was Mary Joyce whom he was not able to marry due to parental opposition.

What is the dual nature of first love that Clare captures in his poem?

First love is powerful and stays with us, but it can be painful as well as joyous or liberating. This poem, one of John Clare’s most widely anthologised, captures this dual nature of first love and the way in which it is a loss of something – namely, innocence – as well as a gaining of something new and special.

What had stolen away the speaker’s heart in the poem first love?

In the poem’s first stanza, Clare’s speaker tells us how he was first ‘struck’ with love, which was ‘sweet’ but also ‘sudden’. he fell in love with was as beautiful as a sweet spring flower, and stole all of his heart away.

Are flowers the winter’s choice?

Are flowers the winter’s choice? Is love’s bed always snow? She seemed to hear my silent voice, Not love’s appeals to know.

What does the title first love suggest?

‘First Love’ by John Clare describes the sudden, overwhelming love a speaker feels for a woman he is seeing for the first time. The poem begins with the speaker stating that he is experiencing an emotion so strong it is like nothing he’s felt before.

What is the first love poem?

The oldest surviving love poem is written in a clay tablet from the times of the Sumerians, inventors of writing around 3500 BD, and was called by archaeologists by a very un-romantic name: ‘Istanbul #2461’.

Is loves bed always snow meaning?

He is asking, rhetorically, if the “flowers” are “winter’s choice?” And it “love’s bed” is “always snow?” With these words, he is probing the possibility of real love. Perhaps, he thinks, it does not always have to be cold and doomed to fail.

What is the tone of first love?

The poem has an underlying tone of innocence and flurry of emotions as it is the poets very first attempt at love exhibiting his feelings for Mary. The opening of the first stanza only shows how sudden and unexpected the feeling was as he was never ‘struck before that hour’.

What is the oldest love story in the world?

Istanbul #2461 (also Ni 2461, L. 2461) is an ancient Sumerian cuneiform tablet which is believed to contain the oldest love poem ever found.

What is the oldest love song?

the Love Song of Shu-Sin
The World’s Oldest Love Poem was discovered in the library of Ashurbanipal in Mesopotamia. Known as the Love Song of Shu-Sin, the World’s Oldest Love Poem is about both romantic and erotic love, and was read as a part of a sacred ritual known as the ‘sacred marriage.

How old is the oldest love poem?

What is the analysis of First Love by John Clare?

Analysis of First Love by John Clare. First love is a poem, which encapsulates the experience the poet has falling in love for the first time. It is rejoicing the love he attained for a woman named Mary Joyce however there is sadness and a feeling of dissatisfaction hovering in the background. This feeling exists, as the love was unrequited.

Which is the best poem by John Clare?

‘First Love’ is one of the best-known and best-loved poems by John Clare (1793-1864), who is often forgotten when people are recalling the great English Romantic poets. But as this poem demonstrates, Clare’s poetry is a curious blend of the simple or direct and the complex, and a few words of analysis of ‘First Love’ may help to elucidate the poem.

What kind of life did John Clare have?

Though not very successful as a poet during his lifetime, there was a major re-evaluation of his work in the 20th century. He is now considered a major 19th-century poet. For most of his life, John Clare lived in penury and suffered from mental illness.

What happens in the first stanza of first love?

In the first stanza of ‘First Love’, the speaker begins by outlining what the rest of the poem is going to be about. He has fallen in love and is using these stanzas to outline how that happened and how he has changed because of it.