Maude Clare

Form

Ballad qualities → Quatrains, ABCB, narrative, conversational

Highlighting/criticising marriage

Nell

• Village maid

• Simple

• Nice

• Simperlative name

Maude Clare

• Queen

• Favoured

• Taller and smarter

• Long name

Marriage

Love, judgement, rivalry, comparison

Link to context/interpretation

• Victorian England - Stereotypical woman role

• Feminist - Nell sees herself with Thomas, whereas Maude Clare is independent

• Pre-Raphaelite - Natural imagery

Dramatic function

Marriage being imperfect

Should settle on imperfect marriage or be alone?

Comment on women’s relationship with men

When?

Written between 1857-1858

Illness in stanza 3

Somber tone, contradict typical wedding

“hearth” and “board”

Putting herself in the centre of the home

“To bless the hearth, to bless the board, To bless the marriage bed”

• Cursing rather than blessing

• Cold, bitter, hungry, unhappy, infertility

• Doesn’t want them to live a comfortable life

• “bed” = no rest/peace, infertility, cursing children

“Golden chain”

Regal. King to her Queen

Locked up within marriage

“faded leaves”

Holding onto something with no value and likely dead. Love faded and died

“lily leaves”

Remembrance. Purity/innocence. Deeply romantic memories. Mentioning it at wedding is sinister

“spurn, I’ll wear”

Just because you don’t want it, doesn’t mean I don’t. Grateful she has someone