1/8/2023 0 Comments My first love poemJohn Clare was a farm labourer who was largely self-educated. In the end though Clare’s encounter with “love” seems to have left him deeply disturbed and bewildered. This contrasts tellingly with the first verse where we might think we are encountering a pretty, conventional love poem with the pleasing sibilance of “…love so sudden and so sweet” and a face likened to a “sweet flower”. Flowers should not bloom in winter and “love’s bed” should be warm and deeply comforting not cold as “snow”. The language and imagery clearly suggest an unrequited love and a world turned upside down. His heart has been stolen, blood burns around it and this heart can never return to its home. Notice how references to sight run through the poem and how Clare places the word “heart” in each stanza. Midday looks like midnight and he is almost physically disabled by the sight of the face of the woman he loves. The speaker is grappling with emotions that are deeply disorientating. The intensely personal nature of this cry from the heart is emphasised by the use of “I” as the first word of the poem. Clare’s haunting poem about suddenly and dramatically falling in love captures not only the pleasure but also the pain of this experience.
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