farmers bride

• quote 1

  'Like the shut of a winters day

  Her smile went out, and 'twasnt a woman-'
• quote 2

  'and turned the key upon her fast'
• quote 3

  'The brown of her- her eyes, her hair, her hair!'
• 'Like the shut of a winters day

  Her smile went out, and 'twasnt a woman'

  • sudden change
  • pathetic fallaccy- winter, cold, loveless
  • she wasnt behaving how women were expected to behave
• 'And turned the key upon her fast'

  • locked her up, animalistic imagery is used alot before this to describe her, he was hunting her down and now hes found her he doesnt want her to escape again
  • mew's siblings were put in instutions as children so this could be linked
• 'The brown of her- her eyes, her hair, her hair!

  • repetition
  • breakdown
  • ambiguous:
  • speaker has walked in on her body (suicide)- panic and distress
  • speaker becomes mad - like mews siblings
  • speaker goes to her room and attacks her/ rapes her- creepy, disturbing
  • speaker feels helpless and sad, hes lonley and wants a relationship with his wife
• structure :

  • dramatic monologue- only the mans voice is heard, unreliable narrator
  • rhyme scheme varies throughout - unstable, like his mental health?
  • iambic rhyme to it- bouncy upbeat, contrasts to what is being described in the poem
• context: (charlotte mew)

  • 2 of her siblings became mentally ill and were put in institutions
  • she was gay
  • she was admired by many poets (including thomas hardy)
  • in 1928 she commited suicide