the farmer’s bride (Charlotte Mew)

“Frightened Fay”

• Fricatives of alliteration = harsh treatment

• “Fay” = childlike and not old enough to be a part of adult relationships

• Seems vulnerable

“We chased her”

• bride is vulnerable and alone and powerless

• Resembles a hunt, comparing her to a small animal

• “We” = represents power imbalance of the relationship

• → hard to go against the strength of societal expectations/norms

• Mew questions society’s compliance in helping victims

“The farmers bride”

• Possessive patriarchy

• Not named = emphasises lack of character/extension of the farmer

• Poem revolves around his opinions, superimposes over her fear

“One leaf”

• Becoming obsessive

• Represents isolation and divide

• Associates with winter, a time of death and coldness etc

• Speakers field of vision has narrowed

“She does the work around the house as well as most”

• surrender to him and his expectations/ gender roles

• Fulfils her domestic role but is not happy

• Farmer seem ignorant to his own role in her unhappiness

• Satisfactory/practical relationship

“-Her eyes, her hair, her hair”

• Obsessively objectifying her

• Focused on details

• Ending is unresolved and full of frustration

• dashes disrupt regular iambic tetrameter, breathless affect for reader

• Increasingly frantic repetition builds up to the crescendo of the poem

• Break down of structure

“Hare" and "shiver and a scare"

• Sibilance = ominous tone surrounding her return

• Syndetic list (“and”) = disjunct rhythm/dysfunctional relationship

• Fear is expressed physically = hunting of prey

• Emphasises vulnerability by rhyming couplet comparison

"when us was wed”

• shows farmers idiolect

• Rural and uneducated character

Context (mew)

• Written in 1912, when suffrages were gaining attention and the idea that men should not possess women was being raised

• Her family had a history of mental health and so she allegedly vowed to never get married or have kids as to not pass it on

• Overall structure (TFB)

• Flowing irregular rythmn

• Stanza length changes but iambic tetrameter is common throughout

• Switches between couplets, alternate and arch rhymes, sometimes 3 or 4 lines

• → resembles unpredictability of farm life

• In the fourth stanza: monorhyme quatrain that initially sounds like a dreamy lover's praise. Until Mew again inserts enjambment to modify the meaning of the phrases. She is 'shy', 'swift', 'straight and slight' and 'sweet', but only to 'her wild self'

• Dramatic monologue = authority of speaker over brides humanity and autonomy

Themes (TFB)

• Gender roles/patriarchy

• Romance

• Dominance

• Nature

• Animals

• Power imbalances

• Obsession (negative)