A Wife in London (December, 1899) - Thomas Hardy

Question 1

THEMES (3)

Answer 1

futility of war
loss, grief & reminiscence
love and heartbreak

Question 2

TITLE

impact of saying “a wife” instead of “the wife”

Answer 2

makes the context vague; suggests that the wife could be anyone, thus conveying the commonness of the tragedy the poem portrays.

Question 3

FORM

Answer 3

two sections: The Tragedy and The Irony

Question 4

ALLITERATION

Answer 4

fricative (F): ‘fold on fold’ & ‘firelight flicker’

sibilance: ‘shaped so shortly’

Question 5

PATHETIC FALLACY

Answer 5

London fog; ‘tawny vapour’ that ‘hangs thicker’ by next morning; represent how she is in the dark about her husband; and her deepening grief

Question 6

Flashed news is in her hand

Answer 6

Of meaning it dazes to understand:

He–has fallen–in the far South Land…

Question 7

A letter is brought whose lines disclose

Answer 7

By the firelight flicker

His hand, whom the worm now knows.

Question 8

Fresh–

Answer 8

firm–penned in highest feather

Page-full of his hoped return

Question 9

And of home-planned jaunts

Answer 9

by brake and burn
In the summer weather
And of new love that they would learn.

Question 10

CONTEXT

Answer 10

composed two months after the start of the Boer War (1899–1902). one prominent newspaper denounced Hardy as a pacifist