Love in Sonnet 29 and First Love Essay

Sonnet 29 and First Love both meditate upon love, however Sonnet 29 chooses to reflect on the transience of love and how it leaves you vulnerable, whereas First Love cogitates about how love is uncontrollable and everlasting.

Both poems are quite pensive but share completely different views. Sonnet 29 starts with the anaphora of Pity me not. This makes it seem as if the poet, Edna St Vincent Millay, is being defensive as she becomes frustrated and reveals her annoyance, hinting that she may be feeling vulnerable and feeling insecure which links back to the poems theme of love leaving you alone and uncertain. This notion is reflected upon in First Love, where John Clare uses the oxymoron, silent voice. This depicts a sense of confusion or uncertainty, adding to the ongoing message in First Love of true love being out of ones control emotionally.

The theme of being out of control is reiterated in the first line where he says, I neer was struck before that hour. The harshness of struck dramatizes his realization of being in love. This is further carried on in the next line where the poet uses the sibilance of so sweet and so sudden to reinforce his unbearable surge of emotion. On the contrary, Sonnet 29 also uses sibilance, but for a completely different purpose. The sibilance of mans desire is hushed so soon creates a hissing sound, making the tone slightly bitter and angry as the poet talks about how love will leave you vulnerable. This is thoroughly different compared to First Loves lyrical, melodic feel as Clare talks about the gentle nature of love.

First Love also portrays love as something innocent. This is shown in the line, my life and all seemed turned to clay. The monosyllables are used to highlight its simplicity and the imagery makes it seem more personal, hinting that his love is nave and chaste. Meanwhile, in Sonnet 29, Millay uses alliteration when she says, you no longer look with love on me. This alliteration further reinforces the previously established angry tone, showing the poets point that love will take everything away from you. This is further fortified when she says, This have I known always: Love is no more. The use of a colon creates a pause which adds poignancy to the didactic statement, making it more philosophical and axiomatic. This adds to the theme of Sonnet 29 that love will inevitably end.

The poet then starts to become more melancholy. This is clearly demonstrated when she says, Than the great tide that treads the shifting shore, and because the line is mostly monosyllabic, it creates a sharp, gritty tone and due to the fact that the alliteration is stopped on shifting and it is the only disyllabic word, it makes shifting stand out. This portrays the poets thoughts that love can change so quickly. Also, the imagery of great tide and shifting shore make her sounds more lyrical, as if she were lamenting loves adjustable nature. First Love, instead focuses on how love is out of control. The anaphora in the second stanza of and increases the pace, creating a sense of action which hints that the poet is feeling a rush of being out of control. This is further developed when he uses the rather simple imagery of the trees and bushes round the place. The imagery just highlights his sheer confusion and exposes his congestion of emotion.

Sonnet 29 ends with a rhyming couplet (as is the nature of Shakespearian sonnets) which makes it sound very dramatic and because she changed the previous line of pity me not to pity me that makes the poem sound much more melancholy and remorseful. This underlines the threnodys theme of love being transient and inevitably ending. On the other hand, First Love ends with just a hyphen, suggesting that the poem is not over, hinting to the poets thoughts about love never ending.

In Conclusion, Sonnet 29 uses alliteration, monosyllables and other various techniques to meditate upon loves transience while First Love uses sibilance, imagery and other techniques to talk about how true love can be everlasting and infinite.