A Wife in London Flashcards
CONTEXT - what war was this set in?
The Boer War
CONTEXT - Thomas Hardy
Victorian age - critical of much of Victorian society, as he felt it limited people’s lives and potential for happiness
Anti-war
The notion of ‘fate’ features prominently in his work
CONTEXT - The Boer War
Around 22000 soldiers killed
Use of telegrams to transmit urgent news and normal post otherwise
What can we say about the title?
Indefinite article ‘A’ - many more people - could be any wife
“Wife’ - suggests the most important part of her identity is a marital status as a woman - indicates that the poem will be about her husband in some way
“London” - Boer War - the poem was published 2 months after the war began - English soldier
What effect does splitting the poem in 2 halves have?
Could represent how the wife and soldier have been separated by war - Hardy was anti-war
What does the “tawny vapour” suggest
Pathetic fallacy - fog reflect the hope, dimming and it’s hard to see the light
Creates an eerie, almost sinister, atmosphere
“Tawny” = brown/yellow
What does the image of a “waning taper” suggest?
A waning taper means a candle burning down/ fading
→ no hope
→ his life is ending
What can we say about the consonance sounds in “knock cracks”
The consonance is a very harsh sound which makes there phrase sound almost violent, much like the soldier’s death
What does “flashed news” suggest
Sudden and unexpected
“Flash” - colour flash changes somber colours to sharp white
- fast and shocking
- light in her darkness
What can we say about the line “He — has fallen — in the far South Land…”
“—“ - the dashes mimic the telegram, it is also caesura, which slows down the pace of the poem
- it also mimics the hesitation and disbelief of the wife
“has fallen” - euphemistic
- she doesn’t want to accept the news
- instead of ‘has died’
“…” - elipsis
- the wife cannot/will not read more of the telegram
- it shows her raw emotional state and inability to accept the news she has received
How can we annotate the line “ Tis the morrow; the fog hangs thicker”
The caesura mirrors the wife’s hesitation and sadness
Pathetic fallacy of the fog - it is associated with grief and sadness, as the pain and sorrow still haven’t sinked in
The fog could also be referred to the “tawny vapour” in the first stanza - comparing, saying that it feels worse, and more unclear than at the start
“F__________ f_______”
“ firelight flicker”
Suggests the fragility of life - another image of “waning” light
Fricative alliteration
What can you say about the line “His h_____, whose the w____ now k_____”
“His hand, who the worm now knows”
Very blunt - traumatising
Shows the trauma of the loss of the human can have
A very disturbing image
“F_____ — firm — p______ in the h________ feather”
“Fresh — firm — penned in the highest feather”
“Fresh” and “firm” have connotations to life - IRONIC
Alliteration - jolly, upbeat when it is really sorrowful
— = reminds us of the traumatising telegram - contrasts the sad message with a positive one in the letter
What does “j_____” associates to (last stanza)
“Jaunts”
Like youth - IRONIC - makes the loss all the more tragic
Has a positive tone - like “home-planned” and “hoped return”, we get a sense that the soldier was optimistic about his return
