A Wife in London Flashcards
Beginning quote 1
“She sits in the tawny vapour”
The adjective ‘tawny’ has eerie connotation foreshadowing the news that is about to come. The fact the Wife is sitting in the vapour emphasise the numbness she feels.
Beginning quote 2
“A messenger’s knock cracks smartly”
The fact a messenger is delivering the new suggests there is not sympathy for her loss - she is just another nameless widow.
Middle quote 1
“Though shaped so shortly:
He - has fallen - in the far South Land…”
Lots of punctuation shows the disbelief that her husband is dead.
Middle quote 2
“‘Tis the morrow; the fog hangs thicker”
The motif of the fog repeats although it has changed from vapour to fog, suggesting her grief is growing.
End quote 1
“His hand, whom the worm now knows:”
His hands were only for her now she has to share will death.
Vivid imagery of death and decay.
End quote 2
“Page-full of hoped return”
Suggests he had planned their lives together, making he death even more bittersweet.
Who wrote A Wife in London?
Thomas Hardy
Context of A Wife in London.
- This poem was written as the Boer was was happening, in South Africa. Many people felt it was a pointless war to fight.
Form of A Wife in London?
It is broken into two parts “The Tragedy” and “The Irony”
There is an ABAB rhyme scheme throughout that is broken only once.
