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Summary Poem Analysis of 'A Wife in London' by Thomas Hardy CA$8.19   Add to cart
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Summary Poem Analysis of 'A Wife in London' by Thomas Hardy
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Here’s a full analysis of the poem “A Wife in London” by Thomas Hardy, tailored towards A-Level students, but also suitable for those studying at a higher level. Includes: Poem Vocabulary Story/Summary Speaker/Voice Language features Structure/Form Context Attitudes Themes

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Document information

  • February 7, 2022
  • 8
  • 2021/2022
  • Summary

Subjects

  • english literature
  • english poetry
  • a level poetry
  • poem analysis
  • poem summary
  • poem breakdown
  • a level poem
  • thomas hardy
  • a wife in london
  • cie a level poetry
  • a level english literature

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  • A/AS Level
  • CIE
  • English - Literature
  • Poetry
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A Wife in London
Thomas Hardy



December 1899



I The Tragedy

She sits in the tawny vapour
That the Thames-side lanes have uprolled,
Behind whose webby fold-on-fold
Like a waning taper
The street-lamp glimmers cold.

A messenger's knock cracks smartly,
Flashed news in her hand
Of meaning it dazes to understand
Though shaped so shortly:
He—he has fallen—in the far South Land…

II The Irony

'Tis the morrow; the fog hangs thicker,
The postman nears and goes:
A letter is brought whose lines disclose
By the firelight flicker
His hand, whom the worm now knows:

Fresh—firm—penned in highest feather—
Page-full of his hoped return,
And of home-planned jaunts of brake and burn
In the summer weather,
And of new love that they would learn.

, VOCABULARY

Tawny - a yellow brown colour
Vapour - steam
Uprolled - moving upwards as something rolls
Webby - like a web
Waning - disappearing, fading
Taper - a shape that reduces in side towards one end, like a candle
Glimmers - shimmering with light
Smartly - double meaning, neat, tidy and firm but also can refer to a sharp, harsh
pain
Dazes - confuses / makes dizzy
‘Tis the morrow - it is the next day (tomorrow)
Nears - comes near
Disclose - tell information
Penned in highest feather - written down with the most expensive feather quill pen
Jaunts - trips, journeys
Brake and burn - old fashioned words for green pastoral scenery (brake) and a
fresh-water stream (burn)



STORY/SUMMARY

Part One: The Tragedy

From the title, we know that the subject of the poem is a woman, somebody’s wife,
who lives in London. She is sitting in her house near the river Thames, surrounded by
vapours - likely the pollution of the city, as London at this time was known to be
extremely polluted and full of smog. Behind the thick smog, which looks like a web, a
streetlamp faintly gives off a cold light.

A messenger knocks at the door, sharply. In his hand he carries a quick bit of news -
the news is difficult for the woman to process, even though it is phrased so shortly: He
(her husband) has been killed in battle - in the ‘far South Land’, an unspecified war that
took place further South in the world than England, likely the Boer War (see context
for more info).

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