Comparing Poems First Love, Amen and Porphyrias Lover

Comparing Poems First Love, Amen and Porphyrias Lover

First love is a poem describing when a man falls in love for the first

time.

This poem is very well worded, with similes and adjectives. It

describes how love takes over everything; your mind, your body, your

soul. It hits you like a bullet, and stops you dead.

“I ne’er was stuck before that hour with love so sudden and so sweet.”

The poet describes at the beginning how he first noticed the woman’s

beauty, and how at each second he gazed at her, the more mesmerising

she became.

“Her face it bloomed like a sweet flower and stole my heart away

complete.”

In a way, I think that the poet is trying to convince us that love is

capable at first sight. He uses clever words and phrasing to make sure

we are convinced.

Still in the first stanza, he describes how the sighed of this woman

froze him in his tracks. His muscles tensed, and his face lost colour.

“My face turned pale as deadly pale, my legs refused to walk away.”

Love drew him to a stop. In a way, that’s what I think the poet is

trying to do. He’s trying to draw a picture of the uncomfortable

feelings etc. I also think he’s done a good job.

In the second stanza, it explains what happened after he looked away.

He described it as he could not see anything, as the love had covered

his eyes. He also explains how the blood suddenly rushes back into his

face.

“And then my blood rushed to my face and I took my sight away. The

trees and bushed round the place seemed midnight at noonday.”

In the second half of the second stanza, he talks of the joy he

experienced from this sudden rush of love. He makes it that his heart

began to sing.

“I could not see a single thing, words from my heart did start; they

spoke as chords do from the string and blood burnt around my heart.”

In the last stanza, he talks about how he left his heart with her on

that last day, and it never returned.

“Amen” can be compared to “First Love” as more confusing and not as

romantic. It is written in a different style, with different wording.

Each verse starts with a question: “It is over. What is over?” “It is

finished. What is finished?” “It suffices. What suffices?”

It is hard to say whether this poem is about love itself, or her love

for something, or even a love that she’s lost.

Reading the first stanza three times made me realise the poem is about