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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 defines a first love poem? A first love poem typically explores the emotions, experiences, and sensations associated with falling in love for the first time. These poems often capture the innocence, intensity, and transformative nature of first love. Why are first love poems so popular?
- Stanza One
- Stanza Two
- Stanza Three
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 stanzasto outline how that happened and how he has changed because of it. The speaker explains that there was one particular moment, an “hour,” that he was “struck…With love so sudden and so s...
In the second stanza, the speaker goes into greater detail concerning the way his body reacted to seeing this woman. It is important to keep in mind, for the sake of perspective, that this all occurs before he speaks to her. The next thing that happened to him, after the woman looked at him, is all the “blood rushed to [his] face.” This caused his ...
In the last stanza of ‘First Love’, the words the speaker makes with his eyes are described. The first two lines are the questions. These are likely originating from his love addled mind and posed at the woman. 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 t...
- Female
- October 9, 1995
- Poetry Analyst And Editor
Apr 10, 2018 · Overview of the Meaning: Carol Ann Duffy’s ‘First Love’ can be seen as a comment on John Claire’s ‘First Love’. In Claire’s poem, he describes how his first relationship failed and how it then negatively impacts all the love he later feels in life, haunting him.
Poem analysis of John Clare's First Love through the review of literary techniques, poem structure, themes, and the proper usage of quotes.
Nov 27, 2007 · Reading poetry well is part attitude and part technique. Curiosity is a useful attitude, especially when it’s free of preconceived ideas about what poetry is or should be. Effective technique directs your curiosity into asking questions, drawing you into a conversation with the poem.
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‘First Love’ by Carol Ann Duffy is a beautifully-written poem that explores the surprising power of memories, particularly those connected to someone’s first love.
