A wife in London, by Thomas Hardy Flashcards
Which war was this poem based around?
Second Boer war in South Africa
Conflict was over the huge gold reserves in The Transvaal
Who is the voice in the poem?
A wife of a soldier who has died in battle
What is the poem about?
Grief and love
How is pathetic fallacy used?
‘She sits in tawny vapour’
‘fog hangs thicker’
–> ominous atmosphere
–> reader knows something bad is going to happen
How is there irony in the poem?
after she learns that her husband is dead, she receives a letter from her husband in which he speaks of his excitement of when he will next see her and the thing which the will do
How is the poem structured?
The poem is split into two sections - the tragedy and the irony
The second half of the poem shows how her life has changed after the death of her husband.
The tragedy depicts the loss of her husband and perhaps the futility of war.
Key quotes from part one of the poem
‘The street-lamp glimmers cold.’
‘Like a waning taper’
–> foreshadows the wife’s emotional suffering by images of light being overcome by darkness
–> suggests warmth in her life is gone
‘Flashed news is in her hand’
–>telegram from the war office
‘He - has fallen - in the far South Land…’
–> dashes add a dramatic pause
Key quotes from the second part of the poem
‘the fog hangs thicker’
–> pathetic fallacy, her grief is settling in
–> feels the weight of her husbands death even more on the day after she heard the news
‘His hand, whom the now knows’
–> morbid play on words, meaning both the husbands hand and his handwriting
–> vivid image is shocking, highlights death and physical decay
‘Page-full of his hoped return’
–>husband looked forward to his return and their imminent time together
