The Farmer's Bride - Charlotte Mew Flashcards
The Farmer’s Bride
This poem presents the negative consequences for both husband and wife of an arranged marriage that is unconsummated.
It brings out the sadness of the husband who wants a relationship with his wife but does not have the emotional intelligence to understand her.
On the other hand, it presents how an inexperienced, virginal bride is terrified of a sexual relationship with a man she barely knows.
General Context
- Charlotte Mew was never married. This might be reflected in her negative portrayal of marriage and how it strips woman’s freedom.
- The setting of the poem is in a farm and her grandfather was a farmer.
‘I chose a maid’
L - verb
It suggests that she is objectified and implies she has no choice.
‘like a little frightened fay’
L - simile
Fay means fairy which suggests that she is almost ethereal, not quite human. It also makes her seems vulnerable.
‘like the shut of a winter’s day’
L - simile
She has shut down emotionally due to the fear of her husband.
‘flying like a hare’
L - simile
Hare moves fast but are also wild and undomesticated. It shows how confined she feels within the domestic sphere.
‘we chased her…we caught her and turned key upon her’
L - verbs
He sees her as an animal and does not see her as vulnerable.
R - shocking to modern readers
‘like a mouse’
L - simile
She is timid and vulnerable.
‘sweet as the first wild violets’
L - simile
When violets are removed from the natural environment, they wither and die quickly. Just like the bride is withering away in the marriage. She is the happiest in a natural environment but she is now confined.
‘but what to me?’
L - rhetorical question
Suggests the farmer barely knows her.
‘alone, poor maid’
L - adjective
The farmer is not a complete monster as he feels sorry for her.
‘tis but a stair betwixt us’
Physically, they are not far apart but emotionally they are very distanced.
He also longs to be with her sexually.
Rhyme scheme of stanza 3
AABBBCCDDD
The concentration of consecutive rhyming lines which emphasises her claustrophobic entrapment within the house.
The exclamation marks and repetition in the final three lines
The broken syntax emphasises the farmer’s desperate longing to consummate the marriage.
