A wife in London Flashcards
Context ?
- during the BOER war in South Africa (1899- 1902), the news of a British solder desth is sent by telegram (which is faster then normal letter). Thus lettered from the soldier of hopeful return arrived later and so this poem of irony was created to highlight the excruciating pain some people had to go through.
Form
- written in 2 parts from observer point of view , shows the way her life changed completely and irrevocably because of husband death
- clear detached tone presents the wife”s brief as inevitable due to war
X could say subverts the visceral nature of grief?
X shows a harsh message
2) irregular rhythm and dashes (not only mimics the stoke if a telegram) creates pauses forcing the reader to focus on the tragedy and shows the wife inability to comprehend the facts and gives uneasy disjointed sense
3) asymmetrical rhyme scheme (Abbas) broken is broken only once with a half rhyme between “smartly “ and “sharply”, to reinforce wife lack of comohensiojsn
4) sibilants creates urgency in stanza 2
5) causes us slows pace making it more painful
Structure !
Divide into two parts with Ken title . One title sets up send of inevitability and other uneasiness , and that LIFE SOLIT INTO TWO
- the title of poem also helps reinforce that it could be any wife in London that this happens to, such is the punishment of war
- title create anticipation and sense of initial hope (could the man still be alive) only to be more painful
2) ideas often repeated to show how situations are similar but essentially different - highlights the irony .
3) the fact one comes befor others exploits sadness and irony of poem shows how her life ireeocvsnlh changed . Similar descriptions make her brief delayed and more painful
4) ending with new love is testament to tragedy , how just like full stop bluntly ends sentence so his her happiness…
5) present tense, hardy died so we feel in the moment and make it more striking tk reader a d connect with wife in London
I the tragedy
Makes bith sides of the poem seem like plays - making more dramatic and firdt is inevitable ness
“She sits in tawny vsloru’
“Webby”
Fog is yellow and thick and she sits alone . Pathetic fallacy? Shows her mood as she is presented s alone against the backdrop of a depressing city as twang SUGGESTS gloomy, dull brown London and ominous x foreshadows death of husband. Sugggest London is not only polluted with sadness but warfare
Could be contrasting to where husband is now- in heaven? Accentuated suffering
- the fog surrounds her and isolated her like a sliders “web”. As a widow she will be further trapped in despair but also poverty
“Sits “ psssove word suggests she feels helpless
Claustrophobic too as the roads are destroyed
Like a waning taper
Similar suggests a diminishing light- light s symbol of hope, that the hope she has is declining and doesn’t know if he will return.
- also that his life is as short as the life of the light
The street lamp Glimmers cold
There is no comfort or warmth in the street light too. Not only does it glimmer - a week sign of hope- chilling imagery of it showing cold means hope is limited now and builds anticipation . To her everything has turned their back on her without her husband their…
Oxymoron to also show life snd death between soldiers fighting ,
Semantic field of war in cracks flashed and dazed ?
What else crack mean
“Smartly”.
Not only does this ONOMATOPOEIA have a violent harsh effect contrasting stanza 1 to show news about ti come, could mimic the way here husband died? In this Fashion
2) also shows nit only did it daze her but suggests relationship broke too
3) smartly and shortly into half rhyme shows inability to twke it in and ultimately how much she loses
Can’t understand the telegram before (awakened structure of sentence shows wife confused)
“He has - fallend x in”
Speaker uses euphemism of “fallen “ to make it less painful so she can have some sort of cope .
2) dashes force it to slow down mimics telegrwm but also how I able she is to take the news in .
Sibilants crested before only adds to this urgency as you can imagine her reading quick until she got to those dreaded words.
The irony
Creates uneasy mood. But maybe hopeful
“The fog hangs thicker”
Mirrors the wife’s grief - pathetic fallacy shows her grief getting bigger. Much like the communications in war, the fog can also cover things up.
Metaphor also shows the mood of the poem has become sadder after wide know s the death
Postman nears and goes
Shows the normality of the postman round and how everyone also gets affected, perhaps shows the normality of causialites and loss of life in war
A letter
Mirror the firdt stanza cresting tension- is it good or is it bad…
By the fire flight flicker
Another image of light that echoed the inevitability of first stanza creating ominous gloom.
The fricatived shoe the rare ness of the light- hope is supposed to be gone but still maybes just maybe?
She is left in the dark alone and mourning
“Fresh - firm - penned in the highest feather “
He was so excited when writing . “Feather highest” suggests how much the wife takes meaning from it snd how good he write it.
2) but irony , he is nothing but fresh now, just like love and hopes they hsd “
3) of course the dashes create painful emphasis on image if the once string and lively husbands they mapped a future with . Remind reader of initls pain.
Also shows how much pride the wife has in his handwriting and him with almost aside
