First Love Carol Ann Duffy Hello and welcome to our By Sam Urquhart and Liam Coleman First Love Carol Ann Duffy
Match them up ‘slow speed’ simile ‘as close to my lips as lipstick’ dynamic verb ‘unfocused’ adjective ‘a dream’ abstract noun ‘clench’ caesura ‘itself in heart. Such faithfulness’ sibilance
Stanza 1 The love is starting to materialise between the couple during possible close exchanges. Inconsistent use of enjambment suggests that love doesn’t always run as smoothly as intended. Potentially crying This shows that speaker is exceedingly close to forming their first love as lipstick is very close to the lips. 5 The speaker split up with their first love. Or perhaps they are unable to speak out about their concerns. Shows innocence and inexperience (first born)
Stanza 2 This suggests innocence. However, the ‘yet I clenched’ suggests otherwise and that the love is perhaps not so innocent. Perhaps the memory of the first love holds tight and they can’t get away from it. The clenching of the eyes suggests a struggle to bring back the memories of her first love. This could be due to the pain caused by these memories or because it was so long ago that it is almost forgotten. She is dreaming of her first love until she can eventually gaze at the pictures again ‘All day’ shows that she obsesses over her first love and maybe she wants to re-live this. This also shows that she has an obsession with her lover as she is continuously thinking about them throughout a whole day. The consistent use of commas throughout this stanza makes it slow to read. This is mimetic of the film being played at a slow speed. 10 Links to the poem ‘Never go back’ also by Carol She is no longer in contact with her lover. She probably scared him off with her obsession with him.
Stanza 3 Here is separate, suggesting that the present that she is in, is isolated from her imagination and past The ‘dream’ and ‘stammers’ are on separate lines, this is mimetic of a stammer in speech She can only be with her lover in her imagination The caesura is further evidence for mimesis of ‘stammer’ 15 Direct address The poem is one more line than a sonnet, which implies that first love isn’t like the dream that is portrayed and this may come as a shock, especially to the speaker. Antithesis shows that she experiences both pain and joy from love.
Main themes Love Pain Loss Dreams Memories Obsession Imagination