a wife in london Flashcards
(41 cards)
who wrote the poem?
Thomas Hardy
what are the main themes of the poem?
- death and loss
- effects of war
- love and relationships
- pain and suffering
- sense of place
what are the possible links?
- London (sense of place)
- The Manhunt (relationships/war)
- dulce (impact of war)
- mametz wood (impact of war)
- as imperceptibly as grief (loss)
what are the main feelings and attitudes in the poem?
- loss
- hope
what war is the poem about?
the 2nd Boer war - sent weaker/sick/inexperienced soldiers, but not specific to the war - applies to the tragedy of many wars
what is the poem about?
describes a wife who gets a telegram telling her that her husband has been killed in the war, and the next day she receives a letter from him that talked about his plans for their future
what sort of tone does the speaker use?
a detached tone which presents the wife’s grief as an inevitable fact of war
what kind of rhythm does the poem use?
an irregular rhythm
what do the dashes and irregular rhythm do?
create pauses which force the reader to focus on the tragedy
what is the rhyme scheme and is it ever broken?
asymmetrical (ABBAB), and is broken once in the second stanza - ‘shortly’ and ‘smartly’ only half-rhyme (apparently) which reflects the wife’s struggle to take in the news. the otherwise clear and consistent rhyme scheme creates a sense of inevitability to the tragic events
why is the poem in the present tense?
creates a sense that this is a story unfolding in front of us, making it more dramatic and emotional
what is the structure of the poem?
split into two parts, 4 stanzas that are 5-lines long
what do the titles of the different parts do?
they create anticipation and the factual descriptions add to the narrator’s detached tone
what does the repetition of the light imagery in the second part do?
the repetition emphasises how similar the situations are, but how they’re fundamentally different
what does the visual image of the fog do?
it foreshadows the wife’s sorrow
what are the images of light presented as?
lacking warmth (the street lamp is ‘cold’, the candle is ‘waning’), which could represent the husband’s life which has ended too soon, or reflect the sadness caused by his death
what is the first part called?
‘The Tragedy’
what is the first stanza?
She sits in the tawny vapour / That the city lanes have uprolled, / Behind whose webby fold on fold / Like a waning taper / The street-lamp glimmers cold.
what are the annotations of ‘she sits in the tawny vapour’?
- the wife is presented as alone against the backdrop of a bleak city
- quite eerie/ominous, creates a sense of foreboding
- highlights the tragedy that is about to happen, her whole world is covered in gloom
- suggests a stark contrast to where her husband died
- foreshadows her sorrow
what are the annotations of ‘behind whose webby fold on fold’?
- spider web imagery evokes the feeling of poverty, entrapment, and anxiety
- makes the woman seem trapped
- as a widow, she will be further trapped
- suggests her loss is inevitable
what are the annotations of ‘like a waning taper’?
- the simile may imply that the light of her love is going out, perhaps with her hopes for the future
- foreshadows the way her husband’s life will be cut short
what are the annotations of ‘the street-lamp glimmers cold.’?
there’s no comfort or warmth in the street light - it adds to the anticipation of bad news
what is the second stanza?
A messenger’s knock cracks smartly, / Flashed news is in her hand / Of meaning it dazes to understand / Though shaped shortly: / He - has fallen - in the far South Land …
what are the annotations of ‘A messenger’s knock cracks smartly’?
onomatopoeia has a violent, harsh effect. it contrasts with the empty, silent scene in the first stanza
