Farmers bride Flashcards
‘since I chose a maid’
The verb ‘chose’ shows the system of patriarchy and suggests that she did not have much choice in the marriage.
The past tense ‘since’ hints that the wife wasn’t afraid until after their marriage which implies that he may be responsible for her fear
‘she turned afraid/Of love and me and all things human/Like the shut of a winter’s day/Her smile went out’
The simile and wintery imagery ‘Like the shut of a winters day’ reflects the cold, numb emotional state of the girl and that she used to be a happy, young lady- like the transition of summer to winter.
The rule of three and the repetition of ‘and’ in the quote ‘Of love and me and all things human’ highlights just how timid and afraid she can become and almost how desperate he is for her to come back out of her shell.
‘frightened fay’
A fay is a fairy, this dehumanises her and makes her emotions unaccounted and inexplicable, he makes no effort to understand the girl.
‘wide brown stare’
Reflects how innocent, fearful and feeble she is
‘We chased her, flying like a hare’
The collective pronoun ‘we’ adds to the impression that she is being hunted and that she has no support which adds to her isolation and fear.
The simile ‘like a hare’ reduces her to an animal, prey being hunted by the man and the villagers
‘We caught her, fetched her home at last/And turned the key upon her fast’
The rhyming couplet describes their hastiness to lock her way which makes it sound sinister
‘mouse’ ‘rabbits’ ‘birds’
She is linked with small prey emphasising her vulnerability an proposing her innocence
‘Shy as a leveret’ ‘sweet as the first wild flowers’
This list of similes makes his admiration clear, however they are all linked with fragile things which can be quite disturbing.
The sibilance creates an elegant, gentle image of the girl.
The flower imagery shows that she is delicate and beautiful but easily damaged and broken- very delicate
‘But what to me?
The rhetorical question breaks his happier thoughts of her in spring time and follows it up with a winter scene, which reflects how miserable he is and starts to hint at his deperation
‘still air falls slowly’
This metaphor hints at the downward movement of the leaf showing the downward smile of hope or happiness in the relationship leading to immense frustration
‘Poor maid. ‘Tis but a stair/betwixt us. Oh! my God! the down,/ the soft young down of her, the brown/ The brown of her- her eyes, her hair, her hair!’
The enjambment between ‘stair’ and ‘betwixt’ reflects how he is alarmingly aware of their physical distance, perhaps hinting that he is becoming impatient. The repetition of her features expose how he is losing control of his desires. The lack of rhyming couplet at the end suggests his patience has snapped and leaves the readers wondering what he might do. The frantic punctuation and broken sentences at the end seems to be the point where he loses control and the poem is left on an ambiguous ending
