Analysis of poem

1. THE FARMER’S BRIDE
CHARLOTTE MEW
GCSE Poetry Revision
‘Relationships’ Cluster

2. READING
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1y6WHZ98Tks

3. CONTENT
• Charlotte Mew wrote this poem during the 19th century and
based her story in a farming community. Although marriages
were not necessarily arranged in the strictest sense they were
often organised according to valuable family matches and
convenience, rather than love. Mental illness affected the
writer and her family, and could be considered a source of
inspiration for the depiction of the bride in the poem.
• The poem tells the story of a farmer who marries “a maid” and
refers to their early experience of marriage. It is told from the
farmer's perspective; his wife is not given voice. She appears
to be badly affected by the experience of marriage and
becomes withdrawn and uncommunicative: “like a little
frightened fay”. She attempts to run away and is food “All in a
shiver and a scare”. She chooses to sleep in an attic room,
away from her husband, who longs for her.

4. LANGUAGE
• The poet uses seemingly simplistic and colloquial (everyday)
language to create the personality of the farmer-narrator in his rural
environment: “When us was wed” and “she runned away”. There is a
suggested lack of formal education. The farmer admits that he did not
take time to find a bride: “more's to do/At harvest-time than bide and
woo”. This is clearly the story of a couple living in a working
community where the demands of farming life came above all other
considerations.
• The short fourth stanza stands out as a sensual, admiring
description of the wife. The poet makes heavy use of sibilance to
produce a sense of the farmer's whispered appreciation.
Comparisons to beauty in nature strengthen the sense of the farmer's
positive opinion of his wife. In line 34 the writer makes use of caesura
(a break in the centre of a line) to underline the problem: although the
farmer admires his wife, she doesn't offer him the affection he desires.
She is “Sweet.../To her wild self. But what to me?” The rhetorical
question ends the stanza and is strongly suggestive of his
unhappiness.

5. LANGUAGE
• You can physically see the wife's fear and she is not
emotionally attached to her husband. There is a big semantic
field of hunt and capture due to the sinister tone of the lines 18
and 19. Society has strong sexual views and there is a reading
that she is scared to be the 'wife' of the time and have sexual
relations. The wife does the housework which makes the male
perspective of the poem clear. There is continuous animal
imagery but she does complete part of her womanly roles.
• Her timid nature comes through with her reluctance to have
sex. The language used in this poem is very basic as it reflects
the speaker's personal dialect and voice. This suggests that the
farmer is unintelligent. Line 25 suggests the idea of begging or
pleading with imagery. The wife could be seen as anti-social to
the point of being depressed and she is withdrawn of general
conversation. The reader feels a sense of sympathy towards
the wife.

6. IMAGERY
• The farmer's wife is frequently compared to a wild, native animal –
“flying like a hare”, “like a mouse”, “Shy as a leveret, swift as he” (a
leveret is a young hare) - confirming the rural setting of the poem and the
attitude of the farmer to his wife, as if she needs taming. When she runs
away she is described as “flying like a hare/.../All in a shiver and a scare”.
It sounds as if the farmer and others are hunting her, making her fearful.
• The idea of sheep and animals is extended and there is a sense that she
is afraid of falling asleep and that she is a fearful person. Metaphorically,
the farmer's wife feels trapped and is being hunted. The mention of
church and religion promts a Catholic reading re-inforcing the fact that
divorce is frowned upon. Divorce appears as not an option and that the
farmer will keep her.
• The poem is rich in images of the natural world, partly because of the
rural setting, but also to represent a farmer's view of the world. Some of
the imagery is symbolic: for example, the magpie feather lying on the
“black earth spread white with rime” (frost), is a small detail suggesting a
world of big contrasts: man versus woman, chastity versus married
sexual union, animal versus human.

7. IMAGERY
• The farm animals trust the wife which suggests a sense of jealousy from
the farmer. There is also no communication between the couple and a
sense of awkwardness is presented. This poem is masculinely driven
and there is a clear male undertone. The wife gains a sense of escapism
and freedom with the animals that she aspires to have with her husband.
Line 30 engages the reader by the use of similie and rhetorical question.
Time is also presented in this poem with the poem going through the
seasons. The time of their marriage is personified by the time of seasons
passing.
• The trees in Autumn lose their beauty which presents the idea that the
farmer's wife is losing her appearence and beauty. The use of dark
imagery suggests the marriage is breaking down and the reference to
magpies on line 37 suggests that their marriage holds lots of bad luck.
• The following reference to Christmas sparks positive thoughts although
the poem suggests Christmas is a lonely time for the couple and that
they just want to be alone. Christmas won't be as good because she is
with the farmer.

8. STRUCTURE
• The Farmer's Bride opens with a reference to “"Three Summers
since"” and towards the end “"Christmas-time"” is mentioned, so there
is a sense of time passing with the tragic situation unchanged. There
are six stanzas which vary in length but throughout there is a strong
use of rhyme. The rhyme scheme of the first stanza, for example, is
a-b-b-a-c-d-c-d-d.
• Punctuation is used to create emphasis at several places in the
poem. The end of the first stanza has two commas in the line,
slowing the pace and halting the rhythm to reflect the disturbance
caused by the wife's escape. Afterwards the farmer “"turned the key
upon her, fast"”. She is securely contained, like the word “"fast"” alone
between a comma and full stop.
• In the final stanza the frequent breaking of the rhythm by various
uses of punctuation suggests the farmer is troubled, struggling to deal
with his wife's fear, but also longing for her.

9. MESSAGE/MEANING
• To the farmer, the relationship with his wife should be functional
and uncomplicated. Feelings should not need to be a
consideration; the option of taking time to “woo” or encourage
love is out of the question. He is full of regret that there is not
“Some other in the house than we!”, imparting a sense of
loneliness and tragedy because they have no children. A wife,
to him, should provide comfort to her husband, have children
and keep house. Stairs separate the farmer's bed from his
wife's; the farmer is frustrated and longs to consummate his
marriage (making it complete through sexual union), as was
legally his right in the 19th century.
• Men are also dominant in the poem, just as they would have
been in 19th century. “I chose a maid”=” makes it clear that the
farmer controlled the relationship from the outset.