Anthology - The Farmer's Bride

QUOTE: synecdoche, unbalanced tricolon, exclamative, ‘h’ alliteration

“her eyes, her hair, her hair!“

QUOTE: zoomorphism, polysyndeton, syndetic listing

“love and me and all things human“

QUOTE: zoomorphism, simile, metaphor, natural imagery

“flying like a hare“

QUOTE: zoomorphism, simile, natural imagery

“like a mouse“

QUOTE: zoomorphism, simile, sibilance, natural imagery

“shy as a leveret, swift as he“

QUOTE: zoomorphism, extended metaphor, expanded noun phrase, natural imagery

“the soft young down of her“

QUOTE: zoomorphism, simile, fricative alliteration

“like a little frightened fay“

QUOTE: assonance, ‘h’ alliteration

“I’ve hardly heard her speak at all“

QUOTE: enjambment, sarcasm

“up in the attic there // alone, poor maid“

QUOTE: extended metaphor, sexual imagery

“berries redden up to Christmas-time“

QUOTE: zoomorphism, metaphor

“twasn’t a woman“

FORM AND STRUCTURE [6]:

• dramatic monologue

• variable stanza length

• irregular rhyme scheme

• masculine rhyme

• punctuation

• iambic tetrameter

FORM AND STRUCTURE: dramatic monologue

emphasises that this poem is solely from one perspective

FORM AND STRUCTURE: variable stanza length

represents irregularity of situation and bride

FORM AND STRUCTURE: irregular rhyme scheme

represents irregularity of situation and bride

FORM AND STRUCTURE: masculine rhyme

emphasises the theme of gender roles and divide between men and women

FORM AND STRUCTURE: punctuation

represents the speaker’s manipulation and control of the bride as he manipulates the rhythm

FORM AND STRUCTURE: iambic tetrameter

represents missing heartbeat; lack of love

CONTEXT [3]:

• written by Charlotte Mew

• in a time where concerns were raising about husband’s possession of women

• Mew resolved never to marry out of fear of passing on mental illness, of which there was a history in her family

THEMES [5]:

• gender roles

• marriage

• sexual relationships

• broken relationships

• distance