A Wife in London - Thomas Hardy Flashcards
when was this poem written?
1899
themes?
- power - the wife and her husband are shown to be powerless
- love
- war - the effects of war on people, particularly the families of soldiers
- time - the cruelty of time has been highlighted in this poem; because the wife recieved the positive letter second, the events expressed in this poem are more painful for her
- man
- death
what is the meaning of this poem?
- in the middle of smog-covered London, a soldier’s wife receives news via telegram that her husband has died in war
- she finds this hard to process
- the next day, a letter the soldier had written prior to his death is delivered to his wife
- it is positive and hopeful, showing the cruelty of time
what is the mood of this poem?
- a negative, depressing mood is found throughout the poem, such as in ‘the street lamp glimmers cold’, reflecting the wife’s emotional distress
- later, the poem is hopeful, as the wife reads her husband’s letter, which promises ‘new love’
- this happy tone is ironic, as the soldier is dead and his wife mourns
what was the motivation for the poet to write this poem?
- Thomas Hardy, who was a known opposer of war, wrote this poem to highlight war’s cruelty and pointlessness
- this is particularly shown in the contrast of the blunt, officious telegram and the prosaic, hopeful letter
- Hardy is known to include the idea of fate in his writing, and this is perhaps seen in the fact that the wife receives her husband’s letter last, and so Hardy may have also written this poem to point out the cruelty of fate
title: ‘A Wife in London’
LANGUAGE:
‘A’ - the indefinite article suggests that there are many people in a similar situation and could also suggest that the person at the heart of the poem is generic - the wife symbolizes all people in the same situation
‘Wife’ - by referring to the eponymous woman as ‘wife’, the poem indicates that the most important aspect of her identity is her marital status, and that the poem will be about her husband somehow
‘London’ - London is at England’s heart - Hardy could be alluding to the love shared between the soldier and the wife, however, it is clear that the poem is about an English soldier
‘I’ (Roman numeral)
STRUCTURE:
- splitting the poem in two could represent how the wife and the soldier were separated
- could represent how her life has been harmed by his death
‘The Tragedy’
LANGUAGE:
- creates a sense of foreboding and inevitability
- foreshadows the soldiers eventual death
‘sits’
LANGUAGE:
- this verb suggests powerlessness as it has connotations of inactivity and passiveness
- the wife is not in a nice place, and yet, she is doing nothing about it
‘tawny vapour’
LANGUAGE:
- an eerie and sinister atmosphere is created by the yellow/brown fog
‘webby fold on fold’
LANGUAGE:
- a sense of entrapment is created, as it sounds like a spiders web
- Hardy could be criticizing London
‘Like a waning taper’
IMAGERY:
- ‘like a candle burning down’; this image could represent the soldiers untimely and imminent death
‘The street-lamp glimmers cold.’
IMAGERY:
- oxymoron as the heat from the street-lamp glimmers cold
- this could foreshadow the sense of dread and how the wife will never feel warm again, now that her husband is dead
- coldness is often associated with death
- perhaps the husbands death is being foreshadowed
‘knocks cracks’
STRUCTURE:
- active verbs could represent the sudden news of the death
- the repetition of the harsh sounds is consonance, which makes the phrase sound harsh and violent - this could suggest the news the wife is about to hear will be a harsh interruption to her life or could refer to the soldiers death
‘Flashed news’
LANGUAGE:
- ‘Flashed’ suggests that the news was sudden and unexpected
‘Of meaning it dazes to understand’
STRUCTURE:
- unusual syntax could represent the wife’s shock as she cannot comprehend the news she is receiving
’- has fallen -‘
STRUCTURE:
- dashes mimic the telegram, and also slow the pace of the poem down (caesura) adding an emotional weight to the line
- they also emphasize the words contained within them, as if the news isn’t quite sinking in to the wife’s head
‘fallen’
LANGUAGE:
- euphemistic language has been used to show how the wife cannot, or will not, accept the news, so she avoids thinking of her husband as dead
- however, the British army could have written the telegram and used the euphemism to soften the blow for the wife which is considerate
‘II - The Irony’
STRUCTURE:
- intriguing title for the second part of the poem; indicates a slight shift, perhaps away from the lack of acceptance from the first half
‘fog hangs thicker’
IMAGERY:
- pathetic fallacy as fog is often associated with feelings of grief, sadness and depression, which the wife is probably feeling
- represents her lack of knowledge and confusion
‘firelight flicker’
IMAGERY:
- light imagery could represent the fragility of life or the inevitability of death
‘whom the worm now knows’
LANGUAGE:
- the bluntness of the language compared to ‘has fallen’ suggests that no matter how much comfort the wife is given, the wife is aware that nothing can bring her husband back
- sinister as he is buried in the ground
‘Fresh - firm’
LANGUAGE:
- this language has connotations of life, indicating the soldiers vitality when he wrote it
- this description is ironic as he is now dead
’- firm - penned in highest feather -‘
STRUCTURE:
- dashes call back to the telegram, contrasting its sad message with the positive one in the letter
- this has strong feelings of optimism
‘jaunts’
LANGUAGE:
- a ‘jaunt’ is a short excursion or journey which has connotations of youth - emphasizes the loss of the soldiers life
‘summer weather’
IMAGERY:
- ‘summer’ is a time associated with happiness and bliss which is ironic as the poem has a sad tone
- metaphorically, the soldier may have been in the ‘summer’ of his life, and had so much more left to live
‘new love’
LANGUAGE:
- ironic, as the wife will be learning to love him in a new way as she mourns him - not how they initially intended to love each other
’.’
STRUCTURE:
- last line of the poem
- the full stops symbolizes the tragic end of the soldiers life and their relationship together
‘hoped return’
‘home-planned jaunts’
‘new love’
LANGUAGE:
- positive tone suggests the soldier was optimistic about war and never truly believed her was going to die
- reflects the confidence held by the British forces at the start of the war
poet context
- a Dorset born novelist and poet of the Victorian age
- critical of much of Victorian society; as he felt it limited people’s lives and potential for happiness
- anti-war (Boer wars and World War 1)
- the notion of fate features prominently in his work
the Boer Wars context
- the Second Boer war was between 1899-1902 and consisted of the British forces fighting the two Boer states in Southern Africa
- they were fighting over gold
- Hardy was around 60 years old during the Boer wars meaning he could not take part and only watch and comment
- the British were unprepared and out of their 400,000 men in South Africa, 22,000 died
- the use of telegrams to transmit urgent news, and less urgent, normal news was transmitted via post - this is integral to our understanding of the poems sadness and misfortune
- London was heavily polluted through the burning of coil and oil which created the smog which is present in this poem
form?
- third person, female perspective
structure?
- the ABBAB constant rhyme scheme used symbolizes how this is just another death of a soldier
