A WIFE IN LONDON Flashcards
Poet, genre, key themes
Thomas Hardy, war / grief / everyday women
set during Boer war (1880-1902)
Thomas Hardy context
1840 - 1928
- influential victorian writer (tess of the d’urbyvilles)
- focuses on INEXORABILITY OF HUMAN DESTINY
- Grew up in Dorset
- Turns to poetry after bleak novel ‘Jude the Obscure’ (1985)
- Rift in his and his wife’s marriage escalated by negative portrayal of marriage in ‘Jude the Obscure’
- However, he is devastated by her death in 1912
What is the inexorability of human destiny?
- Inexorability means not being able to be moved or persuaded
- the inexorability of human destiny is the inability to evade death, similar to themes in romantic poetry
How does the death of Emma Gifford (Thomas Hardy’s wife) in 1912 link to ‘A wife in London’
- Hardy writes on the ominance of death, however poem shows sympathy / empathy for those who are grieving
- Poem almost foreshadows death of his wife? He becomes the wife who is left mourning after ‘estranged’ partner dies?
- Reader can imagine his emotions after his wife dies
Although he believes and writes about how death is inevitable, he is clear in understanding it’s impacts and has a human reaction to it?
Poem context
Boer war
1880-81 / 1899-1902
South Africa
-Second war was welcomed at outset but quickly lost favour after Queen Victoria died in 1901
-People thought it was pointless
- in a sea of jingoistic epics, Hardy’s poetry was more muted and resonated with a small audience
The poem is still relevant to this day as it can be applied to any war in any era
Form and Structure
- From a Woman’s point of view (unusual in 19th century) can empathise with a large, forgotten majority
- Enjambment and convoluted syntax emphasise jumbled thoughts of woman – muted tone, the poem seems quiet and peaceful ( doesn’t hint at brutal war causing death of husband ) could show the silent devastation and grief, the loss of emotion in the woman’s world?
- Two parts ( the before and the after) illuminate how her life is changer forever after finding out the news
What is the effect of the final sentence in the first part bit?
‘He - has fallen - in the far South Land…’
Dashes evoke staccato impersonal nature of telegram , clinical, impersonal, hints at the masses of death in war - they can’t afford to do personal letters to every wife back at home
Elipses emphasises lack of information, a sense of incompletion
‘new love they would learn’
- Poem ends on tragic, sombre note
- Unexpectedness of death -> even when person is fighting in a war
- Illuminates point of the inevitable ness of death and how you should never take life for granted // be too comfortable
‘knock cracks smartly’
-Breaks the peaceful waiting silence of first stanza
-Brings about a change in tone
onomatopoeia : ‘cracks’ -> shatters the woman’s life, breaks it open?
‘knock cracks’ -> repetition of ck, harsh sound further highlights the change
‘smartly’ -> messenger unaffected by news, just doing job, so many deaths he is desensitised by this point.
‘whom the worm now knows’
-Tongue twister? -> hard to get head around / say allowed
- Mocking / cynical metaphor for the death of the husband, wifes anger / sorrow / emotional state
Sombre + dark tone
‘penned in highest feather’
Youth and vitality
Eerie juxtaposition of how alive the soldier once was
‘Fresh - firm - ‘
- Fricative / alliteration to emphasise the character was once alive
- Clinical adjectives, viscerally describe two characteristics he is not anymore (as he is dead)
Link to?
She walks in beauty (Love)
Love taken for granted / confused with lust
Ozymandias (power)
Ephemerality of existance?
Husband fades just as empire fades
