First Love (John Clare poem) Quizzes

First Love (John Clare poem) "First Love"

By Claire Adler · Edited by James Cooper · Last reviewed August 18, 2022

1 What literary movement did John Clare belong to?

Modernist

Romantic

Gothic

Classical
2 Where was Clare born?

Helpstone

Belfast

London

New Delhi
3 What was John Clare's economic background?

Gentry

Upper-middle class

Lower-middle class

Peasant
4 Who of the following is NOT one of Clare's contemporaries?

George Byron

John Keats

Percy Shelley

Ted Hughes
5 How did Clare's status change over the course of his life?

His first book was popular, and he remained well-known throughout his life

He never achieved fame

He did not achieve fame until after his death

His first book was famous, and then he gradually declined in the public eye
6 Who was the likely subject of "First Love"?

Clare's mother

Mary Joyce

Patty Turner

We don't know
7 What emotion does "First Love" describe?

The closeness of still being with your first love after years together

A sweet, innocent crush

Sudden, overwhelming love

Raw passion and lust
8 Which of the following best characterize's Clare's use of figurative language in the beginning of "First Love"?

Shocking

Subtle yet unusual

Non-existent

Conventional
9 Which line of the final stanza of "First Love" MOST closely parallels a line from the first stanza?

Are flowers the winter’s choice?

She seemed to hear my silent voice

My heart has left its dwelling-place

Is love’s bed always snow?
10 Which line from the first stanza is an example of idiom?

And stole my heart away complete.

My face turned pale as deadly pale

Her face it bloomed like a sweet flower

I ne’er was struck before that hour
11 Which line from the first stanza is an example of simile?

My face turned pale as deadly pale

My legs refused to walk away

With love so sudden and so sweet

And stole my heart away complete
12 Which line marks a shift in tone in the first stanza?

My legs refused to walk away

My face turned pale as deadly pale

My life and all seemed turned to clay

With love so sudden and so sweet
13 Which word does NOT appear in both the first and last stanzas?

Flower

Never

Stole

Heart
14 How does the treatment of the heart in the first and second stanza change?

The second stanza uses the heart to emphasize love's transformative powers

The second stanza uses more conventional imagery

The second stanza does not use the heart symbolically

The second stanza employs more bodily and visceral imagery
15 Which of the following is an example of personification?

Words from my eyes did start

My legs refused to walk away

Blood burnt round my heart

The trees and bushes round the place / Seemed midnight at noonday
16 Which of the following best translates the meaning of line 7, "And when she looked, what could I ail?"

And with her looking at me, what could I do to fight back?

And with her looking at me, what could hurt me?

And with her looking at me, how could I escape?

And with her looking at me, I suddenly felt sick
17 What does the speaker suggest about love's impact on the body in the second stanza?

Love makes the body useless and incapable of achieving its aims

Love has nothing to do with the body, but is a purely emotional experience

Love lets the body take over the mind, which is why it's so important to avoid

Love transforms the body into a different kind of object with new purposes
18 Which of the following is NOT an example of paradox?

The trees and bushes round the place / Seemed midnight at noonday

My face turned pale as deadly pale

She seemed to hear my silent voice, / Not love's appeals to know

Are flowers the winter's choice?
19 What does Clare's use of paradox enable him to say about love?

Love is foolish because it doesn't make any sense

Love gives new laws to the world of ordinary things

Love transports us to a fantasy world with wholly new objects

Love is driving the speaker mad
20 What perspective is "First Love" written from?

Second-person limited

First-person limited

Third-person omniscient

First-person omniscient
21 What period of time does "First Love" describe?

Many years of devotion

The first few days of a relationship

A single instant

A few moments of intense experience
22 What is the meter of "First Love"?

Trochaic pentameter (five pairs of one stressed and one unstressed syllable)

Trochaic tetrameter (four pairs of one stressed and one unstressed syllable)

Iambic tetrameter (four pairs of one unstressed and one stressed syllable)

Iambic pentameter (five pairs of one unstressed and one stressed syllable)
23 What is the rhyme scheme of "First Love"?

ABABCDCD

ABABABAB

AABBCCDD

ABCDABCD
24 Which of the following does not include alliteration?

Not love's appeals to know

With love so sudden and so sweet

I never saw so sweet a face

And blood burnt round my heart.
25 What is the major conflict in "First Love"?

Between ordinary reality and the strange world of love

Between the speaker and his uninterested beloved

Between the speaker's desire and his religious convictions

Between the speaker's desire for sanity and his overwhelming feelings

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