A wife in London

• context/content/structure

  Thomas Hardy = Victorian novelist and poet

  wrote poem during Boer War

  soldiers battles for ownership of gold mines in South Africa

  wrote to show war as destructive/ the personal effect

  describes wife waiting for news on husband - she is given news he is dead but the next day receives a letter about his hopes and dreams for the summer and for his return

  first 2 stanzas describe the The tragedy and The irony these are contrasted- organised into 2 sections

  tone = bleak/ poignant/ heartbreaking
• "She sits in the tawny vapour" - second quote


  the scene is cold and dark creates ominous tone as she waits - sets tone of poem

  pathetic fallacy captures misery/ fear/ isolation|

  she is alone and powerless
• "Tis the morrow; the fog hangs thicker"- third quote


  she finds out he is dead

  pathetic fallacy used- weather has worsened

  comparative "thicker" symbolises grief and pain has intensified she is suffering
• "fresh-firm-penned in highest feather" - fourth quote


  receives letter

  alliteration emphasises letter was written with energy and enthusiasm that he has before

  there is a hopeful tone which emphasises the sheer waste of life
• "In the summer weather and of new love that they would learn" - last quote

  
  

  he was looking forward to come home- symbolises joy

  juxtaposed with the bitter reality of war- represented by the "fog"

  Hardy's message is that hope and dreams has been crushed which is the inevitability of war

  "new love" could imply children- future has been destroyed
• " A wife in London" - first quote


  uses indefinite article "A" to imply wife represents situation of many women who has lost their husband at war