A wife in london

The poem is broken up into two parts because it is set over two days, so the parts mark the days. This poem is also broke down into verses because each verse describes different things happening and different emotions. The poem has a regular layout throughout because in each part there are two verses and the poem is consistent. Thomas hardy has used a strange rhyming pattern, where the first and fourth sentences rhyme, and the second, third and fifth rhyme also. The rhythm of this poem is fairly consistent. There are roughly four beats per line. It changes in the second part in the last verse because there is a really long line which has more beats in a line. The first and second verses are paced differently because the first one is slower than the second one. In the first part, the woman's silence is broken by the messenger knocking on the door. I think hardy has shown the silence breaking in the way, because it shows how wrapped up the woman was when she was silent and thinking about her husbands return. In the last line of the verse, hardy has changed the pace by adding dashes between words. He has done this to show how the wife sobs when she hears her husband is dead. Each dash represents a sob or a tear. Also, in the first part of the second verse, it says 'shaped so shortly'. Hardy has done this to show that the message is short and this line is realty memorable because of the alliteration used.

Hardy has used words and phrases in his poem to create images for the reader. Firstly, he creates an image of something gradually lessening, where it says 'waning taper' perhaps the gradual lessening of the woman's hope for the husband's return.

Also, where it says 'she sits in the tawny vapour' it gives an image of a dull boring time, and a time when there is not much happening in her life at the moment and all she is doing is waiting for her husband to return. In the second section of the poem, which is the day after she has heard of her husband death, Hardy has written 'the fog hangs thicker'. This shows that everything seems bitterer to the woman now because she is grieving over the loss of her beloved husband. The fog seems to be thicker to the woman because she is feeling miserable and the fog reflects her mood back to her and she notices it more. Also, in the second part it says 'his hand, whom the worm now knows'. This shows that her husband is dead and buried because his hand knows the worm, because of the earthworms where he is buried.

In this poem, I think Hardy was trying to create an image of waiting, sorrow, and grief. He has included many sentences such as 'like a waning taper' which shows something is gradually lessening and taking a long time. These words also sound like something painful because the word waning sounds like wailing. Hardy's intentions were to shows the sorrow and cold waiting of people who were left behind during the Boer war while their loved ones went to war and died. He did achieve these intentions because I felt empathy for the wife who was waiting for her husband

Lauren Shopland