Thomas Hardy: 'A Wife in London' poem analysis

A wife in London: Thomas Hardy

As one of Hardy’s poems written about the Boer War, this text documents a woman anticipating and receiving a letter informing of her husbands’ death in South Africa.

Hardy was strongly opposed to war and wrote several poems communicating his hatred of conflict.

THEMES

·       Conflict and war

·       Loss

·       Communication

·       Nature versus culture

TONE

·       Anxious / apprehensive

·       Shocked / disbelieving

·       Saddened / grieving

FORM

·       Irregular metre creates feeling of unease to reflect wife’s anxious anticipation

·       Italicised message reflects stress evoked by news of husbands death / suggests appearance and reality of war differ

·       Rigid quintets reflects harshness of social conventions, conflict and war / presents wife’s entrapment

·       Irregular rhyme highlights unnatural occurrence of war and premature deaths

STRUCTURE

·       Diacope acknowledges distance between lovers / boundary…