A Wife in London Flashcards
Who was the author of A wife in London?
Thomas Hardy
Summarise the poem
- Focuses on a woman who receives the tragic news of her husband’s death in the war
- Then, to worsen matters, a letter from her husband arrives the next day, talking about future plans optimistically
What are the themes present in the poem?
Anti-war
Love and relationships
Pain and suffering/ death and loss
Impact of war
What is the key message of the poem?
Seeks to illuminate that tragedy and absurdity go hand in hand with violent conflict
Message of war’s hopelessness, how it cuts lives short unnecessarily, affecting those who are fighting as well as those back home
Describe the structure of the poem and its effect
- Deliberately divides the poem into two opposing halves: the tragedy and the irony
- First two stanzas accentuate the wife’s loneliness trapped in the web of London’s fog and build to climax of anticipation with the tragic news
- The second two stanzas juxtapose the news of her husband’s death with his joyful prose, fresh and firm
- Done to show how war can crush joy and hope
What is the effect of the present tense used in the poem?
Present tense used so that the reader can sense that this is a story unfolding in front of us, making it more dramatic and emotional
Describe the form of the poem and its impact
- Persona in the poem is an observer that watches with a detached manner which contributes to its melancholy tone
- The form mirrors the mismatched timing of these events by following them chronologically—from one day to the next
- The form also contributes to the passivity and helplessness of the wife
→ the jump from one day to the next means that the reader gets no description of her grief, only the events that cause it
→ reader must engage with the poem by filling in the gaps and imagining the wife’s state of mind
What is the impact of the rhyme scheme and the rhythm?
- Asymmetrical rhyme scheme (ABBAB) which is broken once
→ reflects wife’s struggle to understand the news
→ creates inevitability to these tragic events - Irregular rhythm and dashes create pauses and reflect the disbelief of the wife at the news
Describe the language of the poem and its impact
- Contrast of opening imagery to the husband’s joyful imagery creates a deep sense of irony and loss
- Caesura creates a fragmenting effect for the wife and displays her processing the information
- Alliteration used to emphasise most of the poem’s imagery
- Graphic imagery of his ‘hand’ once ‘fresh’ and ‘firm’ now intimately acquainted with the worm focuses on his physical decay and horror of wa
What is the impact of the pathetic fallacy?
Visual imagery + pathetic fallacy
→ instils wife’s isolation and grief
→ fog: encloses her and foreshadows the grip of death into which she will fall
→ imagery of light offers no warmth, hope or consolation
What is the historical context surrounding this poem?
- Hardy is speaking about the Boer War
→ many thought it was an unnecessary waste of lives because it was so far away and insignificant
→ ‘a’ wife = this happened to many wives at home - His poetry often deals with sensitive topics such as victims of war + the devastating impact of war
Complete the quote
‘I: The…
…Tragedy’
Analyse the quote
‘I: The Tragedy’
→ could imply that war always ends in tragedy
→ sets a tone for the reader to follow as they read along to the poem
Complete the quote
‘webby fold…
…on fold
Analyse the quote
‘Webby fold on fold’
→ trapped in hopelessness
→ which is making her nervous
→ evokes ideas of poverty, entrapment and anxiety
→ smog so thick it is enclosing on her
