Mellar

IGCSE LITERATURE COURSEWORK 4

NAME: ROSE CHOTO

GENRE: POETRY

DATE: 16TH AUGUST 2012

TITLE: How do John Clare and Elizabeth Barret Browning make their love memorable to me in their poems ‘First Love ‘and ‘Sonnet#43’?

Both poems are about love and there is no contradiction, both poets talk about their loved ones and how much they love them to some extent. There is a little bit of difference in these poet’s love because in ‘First Love’, Clare’s love is not returned to him and this love becomes a misery to him whereas in ‘Sonnet#43’,Browning keeps on mentioning the love she has for the she loves but being quite clear whether her love is returned back or what.

The poem ‘First Love’ was written by John Clare who was born in England .Clare grew up in a family where agriculture was specialized or taken into great consideration. He attended school but had little access to books. Having little access to books did not discourage him to be what he wanted to be in life. Apart from this Clare was able to come up with many other poems later in his life. Because of background he was not able to marry the one he loved the most and therefore in his poem ‘First Love’, he depicts his reactions to the devastated setback he suffered.

In stanza 1 Clare expresses the happiness and joy he felt inside him when he had seen the one he loved. The first line already unites itself with title of the poem; ‘First Love’. This is so because the poet had never felt that way before it was his first time so it was indeed love at first sight for him. Clare goes further by using for shadowing in lines 7which says, ‘And when she looked what could I ail,’ by this the poet meant that he did not know what wrong that love would do and what pain it will cause giving vivid and concrete evidence of him being in so much love with his loved one. But the tone of the poem was gradually changing from line 7 indicating that tragedy was going to fall on Clare.

Stanza 2 mainly depicts the pain the poet goes...