The Intensity of Love.

Pub #5

“First Love” by John Clare, “To My Dear and Loving Husband” by Anna Bradstreet, and Suffocate by J Holiday have strong correlations, but they also have differences. On the basic level they all talk about love, but in different kinds of ways. Although they were written in different time periods the same emotion is being portrayed in both poems and the song. Love is one of those things that everyone has felt and everyone can relate to. As Professor Brady once said "Its apart of the human condition to love and want to be loved."

            The first poem “First Love” by John Clare was basically about he’s reaction when he first saw the love of his life. In the first few lines of the first stanza of the poem it states “I ne’er was struck before that hour, with love so sudden and so sweet, her face it bloomed like a sweet flower, and stole my heart away complete.” (Clare 1-4) Like that old saying goes “It was love at first sight.” He fell for her the moment he saw her. The tone within this poem is light, and loving. A person could since the depth of his love for the woman in the poem just from the first stanza. The author shows that he’s love is not only an emotional thing but it starts to affect him physical. “My face turned pale as deadly pale, my legs refused to walk away.”(Clare 5-6)

 

 

            In the second poem “To My Dear and Loving Husband” the tone is still loving but not as light, it’s a deeper love. This is evident when the poem states “I prize thy love more than whole mines of gold, or all the riches that the East doth hold.” (Bradstreet 5-6) The author is saying that she values there love more than anything, more than the greatest riches in the world. Gold is a universal valued item by saying she values there love "more than whole mines of gold" she is helping the reader understand how deep her love for her husband truly is.  In this poem the author uses different visuals to explain the love she has for her husband. “My love is such that rivers cannot quench.” (Bradstreet 7) This means that her love for her husband runs so deep, not even all the water in a river could cure her thirst, or longing for him.

 

            In Suffocate by J holiday similar to Bradstreet he is talking about a deeper love, an almost obsessive love. The beginning of the chorus states “Cause I can't breathe when you talk to me, I can't breathe when you're touching me, I suffocate when you're away from me, so much love you take from me, I'm going outta my mind.” (J Holiday) The way I see it is when he’s around her he has butterflies, that feeling of riding on a rollercoaster, how it’s kind of hard to breathe, but its ok because the ride is worth it. But when he’s not around her it’s almost like really bad anxiety, or like hyperventilating, it’s hard to breathe and it’s painful. The tone of the song is loving but also slightly sexual. This is shown when he states “My hands on your hips when we grind [...] Cause I can't go a night without your loving, got me looking at this phone, every time it rings I hope it's you girl.” (J Holiday)

            As stated earlier these three pieces correlate, not just for the fact they all talk about love but also on a level deeper than that. Looking deeper into the text it is shown that all the authors wouldn’t be the same if the person they love, left them. This is shown in “First Love” when the author states “My heart has left its dwelling-place, and can return no more.” (Clare 23-24) This means that he’s heart is no longer his own, if they were to separate, he would be left heartless.  This is shown in “To My Dear and Loving Husband” when the author states “Then while we live, in love let’s so persever, that when we live no more, we may live ever.” (Bradstreet 11-12) The author is thinking that even after death they would still be in love. If they were to separate I believe the author would be more than devastated. She hasn’t even imagine afterlife without him, so how could she make it through the rest of her life without him. Lastly this is shown in the song Suffocate when he states “Now even though I try to play it off, I'm thinking about you all day long.” (J Holiday) Could you imagine thinking about someone all day and not being able to be with them, that is literally heartbreaking.

            The main similarities these three pieces have are that there main theme is love, and the underlying message or theme is the despair that could be cause by separation. The main difference as shown above is in there tones. Of course they all have the loving factor, but there’s the difference of the intensity of the love. As stated above by Professor Brady "Its apart of the human condition to love and want to be loved." This most mean that people have an inherit desire to be loved and want the most intense kind of love. This could be a good and bad thing, although being love and loving someone is a good feeling, it can also cause heart ache if the a person loves someone and they don't love them back. True love is when love is deep and the love is equal among each person.