First love John Clare (1793-18640

Ideas

The poet has moved to another stage in his life. Nothing will ever be the same "And can return no more"
Dominated by emotion and is following his heart and not reason
Feelings and effects your first love has. Shows both the good and bad emotions felt.
Physical impact and emotional turmoil. "deadly pale", "I never saw so sweet a face"
Strong emotion, disorientation "seemed midnight at noonday"
Unrequited love as the girl is not offering her love but the man is deeply in love, there is a sense of longing.

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"First Love", the title uses simple language in order to get the point across.
Strong use of violent language "struck", "burnt", "stole", "deadly pale", to show strong physical attraction
"Her face it bloomed like a sweet flower", simile to reflect the the fragility and beauty of flower. Reflecting his feelings --> naive and easily lost.
"My life and all seemed turned to clay", metaphor, life seems stuck in this particular moment because of his emotional love towards the girl.
1st stanza is showing the positive and negatives of love
Simile is used to compare his words to chords "They spoke as chords", showing once again his strong attraction.
"And blood burnt round my heart", metaphor heart comparing to blood, heat and power. "blood burnt", also shows harsh physical attraction.
Unable to control his emotion "blood rushed to my face", and "took my sight away".
Figurative language, the questions appeal to her but also they are an expression of his own feelings.

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There is the use of simple and natural imagery in order to convey the women's beauty, "Her face it bloomed like a sweet flower".
He was "struck", the moment he saw her and knew that it was love.
He was transfixed and unable to move showing how strong the love he felt was, "My legs refused to walk away".
The feeling is that the poet has moved to another stage in his life, and from feeling this love nothing will ever be the same.
We get the image that the man just turned blank as soon as he saw her "my face turned pale".
John Clare uses violent language in order to paint the picture of just how love-struck he was. This is done so that the feeling that he felt stays vivid in the readers mind throughout.

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Cyclical structure, last lines reflect the first lines
Rhyme scheme ABAB could be reflecting the different people male and female or their different opinions.
First person narration.
Use of questions to provoke thought in the reader

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