First love
"Waking, with a dream of first love forming real words"-The paradoxical
juxtaposition between 'dream' and 'real' suggests the dialectical nature of
love, memories are beyond rational understanding and will always have a
dreamlike, yet potent, quality. They are unreal and intangible but can have
a tangible effect. Oxymoron- love is real but the dream is not. “First
love”- numerical determiner= first, noun phrase. “Dream" could be a
reference to the surrealism that is associated with the first love- nostalgic,
celestial and utopian quality of love. Emphasis on a sense of brand new,
or a fresh feeling, this can be associated with 'first love' being a new
feeling. “waking”- firmly plants us in reality.
"as close to your lips as lipstick, I speak your name"- "as close",
comparative simile and SD, intimacy, speaker longs for the love to be
near, present tense, suggests the speaker's feelings bring comfort. The
memory still feels close and visceral to the speaker. "Lipstick" alludes to
idea of getting ready, the special feeling of a first love, red colour of
lipstick, the vibrance of a first love. Sensual language. “I speak your
name"-"I" and "your", PD, as if the speaker and her first love are
connected through words-power of language.
‘after a silence of years, into the pillow, and the power”- caesura.
"The power/ of your name brings me here to the window, naked, to say it
again to a garden shaking with light"- "power", speaker is almost
compelled by the name of her first love, it has control over her even after
"a silence of years". "Window, naked" a barrier separating speaker from
reality, idea of her at her utmost vulnerability and rawness- acceptance,
truth and sexuality. Outward and almost public expression. "Garden
shaking with light", religious imagery, alludes to the garden of Eden,
purity but also temptation- Edenic synaesthesia- beauty, guidance, surreal
and sensual. "Light" symbolic of things being revealed, no longer hiding in
the shadows, biblical illusion. “here”- spatial deixis. It is referencing the
garden of Eden. This religious imagery could convey innocence of first
love, as the lovers feel like the only people on earth, completely in love
and free of any darker feelings, connoting to Adam and eve, biblically the
first people alive, or could be indicating the blindness of love and
portraying how their feelings transcended the material world. Subversive
imagery.
'This was a child's love and yet'-The use of the spatial
deixis/demonstrative pronouns of 'this' suggests that the speaker has
come to terms that this love was something young and undeveloped and
that the speaker's appreciation of their identity makes the feeling more
powerful - her actions make her thoughts overwhelming and perhaps she
can't escape from it. The phrase "a child's love" minimises the importance
of the relationship. however, by using the conjunction "yet", Duffy
recognises that, despite the naivety she had previously, she still looks
"Waking, with a dream of first love forming real words"-The paradoxical
juxtaposition between 'dream' and 'real' suggests the dialectical nature of
love, memories are beyond rational understanding and will always have a
dreamlike, yet potent, quality. They are unreal and intangible but can have
a tangible effect. Oxymoron- love is real but the dream is not. “First
love”- numerical determiner= first, noun phrase. “Dream" could be a
reference to the surrealism that is associated with the first love- nostalgic,
celestial and utopian quality of love. Emphasis on a sense of brand new,
or a fresh feeling, this can be associated with 'first love' being a new
feeling. “waking”- firmly plants us in reality.
"as close to your lips as lipstick, I speak your name"- "as close",
comparative simile and SD, intimacy, speaker longs for the love to be
near, present tense, suggests the speaker's feelings bring comfort. The
memory still feels close and visceral to the speaker. "Lipstick" alludes to
idea of getting ready, the special feeling of a first love, red colour of
lipstick, the vibrance of a first love. Sensual language. “I speak your
name"-"I" and "your", PD, as if the speaker and her first love are
connected through words-power of language.
‘after a silence of years, into the pillow, and the power”- caesura.
"The power/ of your name brings me here to the window, naked, to say it
again to a garden shaking with light"- "power", speaker is almost
compelled by the name of her first love, it has control over her even after
"a silence of years". "Window, naked" a barrier separating speaker from
reality, idea of her at her utmost vulnerability and rawness- acceptance,
truth and sexuality. Outward and almost public expression. "Garden
shaking with light", religious imagery, alludes to the garden of Eden,
purity but also temptation- Edenic synaesthesia- beauty, guidance, surreal
and sensual. "Light" symbolic of things being revealed, no longer hiding in
the shadows, biblical illusion. “here”- spatial deixis. It is referencing the
garden of Eden. This religious imagery could convey innocence of first
love, as the lovers feel like the only people on earth, completely in love
and free of any darker feelings, connoting to Adam and eve, biblically the
first people alive, or could be indicating the blindness of love and
portraying how their feelings transcended the material world. Subversive
imagery.
'This was a child's love and yet'-The use of the spatial
deixis/demonstrative pronouns of 'this' suggests that the speaker has
come to terms that this love was something young and undeveloped and
that the speaker's appreciation of their identity makes the feeling more
powerful - her actions make her thoughts overwhelming and perhaps she
can't escape from it. The phrase "a child's love" minimises the importance
of the relationship. however, by using the conjunction "yet", Duffy
recognises that, despite the naivety she had previously, she still looks
