Comparison of 'A Woman to her Lover' by Christina Walsh and 'First Love' by John Clark

Comparison of 'A Woman to her Lover' by Christina Walsh and 'First Love' by John Clark

The two poets, Christina Walsh and John Clare, have both written poems about the theme of romantic love. However they have both taken very different approaches to the subject, this was most likely influenced by the periods they were writing in and furthermore, their gender.  
John Clare was writing during the 19th century, his poem First Love explores inexperience, and he was writing about the first time he fell in love with a woman called Mary. Clare shows passion in his writing, using, and uses romantic diction such as “Her face bloomed like a sweet” and “I never saw so sweet a face” and gives a rushed, dreamy tone to his poetry. Throughout his writing it is clear to the reader he is completely in love with this woman, and uses alliteration - “so sweet and so sudden,” – to stress on his feelings and the shock he received when he first fell in love. He also seems confused and unconfident as his “blood rushed to his face”, and took his “eyesight quite away”. In the second stanza, he focuses on sight, and the loss of it – “I could not see a thing”, this adds to the idea that he is focusing on the idea of ‘love at first sight’ or being ‘blinded by love’. In the third stanza however, there seems to be a change in tone where he questions himself, using ironic sentences such as “Are flowers the winter’s choice?” and he assumes there is a connection between him and this woman, since “she seemed to hear” his “silent voice,” and yet again he stresses the face that he “never saw so sweet a face as that I stood before.” At that moment, in the last two lines “My heart has left its dwelling-place and can return no more.” The reader feels the utter helplessness Clare seems to be expressing, saying that he fell in love, and he can’t fall out of love.
Christina Walsh however, takes a very different approach, it was also very unusual for a woman to write during the 18th century, she was most likely disempowered. A Woman...