A wife in London Flashcards
Poet?
Thomas Hardy
Context?
The Boer war was fought in South Africa from 1899 - 1902
About?
A wife in London, whose husband is fighting in he war. She receives a telegram that he is killed. The next day she receives a letter from him telling her he hopes he will return soon and plans for their future.
Form and Structure
Irregular rhythm
Asymmetrical rhyme scheme (broken only once)
To parts each with a title
Factual descriptions = detached tone
Q - First title, sets a negative tone and sense of inevitability.
I - The Tragedy
Q - Second title, creates a further uneasy mood
II - The Irony
Q - Start, eerie setting, pathetic fallacy
‘She sits in the tawny vapour’
Q - Referencing the war is in South Africa
‘in the far South Land…’
Q - Sibilance, ups the pace which mirrors the urgency of the news.
‘shaped so shortly’
Q - Mimicking the style of the telegram and creating pauses as if the news doesn’t sink in.
‘He - has fallen - in the far’
Q - Death and physical decay of his body
‘His hand, whom the worm now knows:’
Q - Painful Irony in the final stanza
‘Page-full of his planned return’
‘of new love that they would learn’
Q - Pathetic fallacy, the wife’s grief is mirrored in the third stanza, sets a heavy tone
'’Tis the morrow; the fog hangs thicker’
Q - First line after title, she is alone against the bleak backdrop of the city
‘She sits in the’
