Poetry: A Wife In London Flashcards
(18 cards)
Whys: 1
Hardy uses the poem to highlight the wide-reaching effects of war, particularly on overlooked
groups, like the wives made widows by war, for whom nothing can be said or done to
ameliorate their grief.
Whys: 2
To condemn the futile squandering of young lives in war and lament their lost futures.
Which themes does this poem represent?
Love and relationships
Pain and suffering
Death and loss
Effects of war
Which poems can be linked with this poem?
London
The manhunt
Dulce et decorum est
Mametz wood
Context 1
Thomas hardy was a novelist - storyteller
Context 2
Poem related to Boer war
The fact that she is ‘a’ wife reflects the situations and lives of many soldiers who lost their life during war
What is the form like in the poem?
Speaker is an observer
Detached tone
Irregular rhythm
How does form relate to content?
Detached tone presents te wifes grief as an inevitable fact of war
Irregular rhythm and dashes create pauses which force the reader to focus on the tragedy
Wha is structure in the poem?
Poem divided into 2 parts, each with its own title
Title creates anticipation and factual descriptions add to detached tone
Repetition emphasises similarities of situations but are different
What is the rhyme scheme like in the poem?
The ABBAB rhyme scheme is only broken once when the wife receives the news of her husband’s death, showing how she struggles to take in the news
What is the poem about?
a woman in London who receives news of her husband’s death in the Boer War, followed by a letter from him expressing his hopes for the future, creating a poignant contrast between life and death
She sits in the tawny vapour
Isolation, Urban setting
Colour imagery, mood
“Tawny vapour” suggests fog and pollution—a gloomy, oppressive atmosphere.
A messenger’s knock cracks smartly
Fate, Shock
Onomatopoeia, harsh consonants
The sudden “crack” reflects the shock and finality of the news.
He – has fallen – in the far South Land…
Death, Distance
Euphemism, ellipsis
“Fallen” softens the news, but the broken syntax shows emotional impact and formality
The Irony
Loss, Fate
Structural title
The poem shifts—this new section warns us that something bitterly ironic is coming.
His hand, whom the worm now knows
Death, Decay
Metaphor, morbid imagery
Disturbing reminder that he’s already dead and buried—even as his words arrive.
Fresh – firm – penned in highest feather
Hope, Tragedy
Alliteration, contrast
Describes the letter full of hope—makes it more painful knowing he’s already dead.
Page-full of his hoped return
Lost future, Grief
Irony, emotive language
Deeply sad—he wrote believing he’d come home, but the reader knows he never will.
