The+Farmer's+Bride

media type="youtube" key="SpcXPBajAbM" height="344" width="425" //The Farmer's Bride// by: Charlotte Mew

Three Summers since I chose a maid, Too young maybe - but more's to do At harvest-time than bide and woo. When us was wed she turned afraid Of love and me and all things human; Like the shut of a winter's day. Her smile went out, and 'twasn't a woman-- More like a little, frightened fay°. One night, in the Fall, she runned away.

"Out 'mong the sheep, her be," they said, 'Should properly have been abed; But sure enough she wasn't there Lying awake with her wide brown stare. So over seven-acre field and up-along across the down We chased her, flying like a hare Before our lanterns. To Church-Town All in a shiver and a scare We caught her, fetched her home at last And turned the key upon her, fast.

She does the work about the house As well as most, but like a mouse: Happy enough to chat and play With birds and rabbits and such as they, So long as men-folk stay away. "Not near, not near!" her eyes beseech When one of us comes within reach. The women say that beasts in stall Look round like children at her call. //I've // hardly heard her speak at all.

Shy as a leveret, swift as he, Straight and slight as a young larch tree, Sweet as the first wild violets, she, To her wild self. But what to me?

The short days shorten and the oaks are brown, The blue smoke rises to the low gray sky, One leaf in the still air falls slowly down, A magpie's spotted feathers lie On the black earth spread white with rime, The berries redden up to Christmas-time. What's Christmas-time without there be Some other in the house than we.

She sleeps up in the attic there Alone, poor maid. 'Tis but a stair Betwixt us. Oh, my God! - the down, The soft young down of her; the brown, The brown of her - her eyes, her hair, her hair!

1.  The title tells the reader very little about the content of the poem, but instead is used to introduce the characters in the story. 2.  It implies there is a farmer who marries a bride, and the poem is about their marriage.
 * __Title: __**

1.  Fay: Fairy (line 8) 2.  Seven acre field: upland pasture (line 14) 3.  Leveret: Young hare (line 30) 4.  Rime: Frozen dew (line 38) 5.  Down: Light, soft body hair (line 44)
 * __Vocabulary: __**

The poem begins with a farmer who marries a woman with a free spirit at a young age. The man wants to have total power over the woman but she is still young and independent, wanting to be her own person. She realizes that she might have rushed into a commitment she is not ready for. She is so young and is now confined to one person. To escape from the three years of containment, she runs away and once again becomes her young free spirited self. After the husband sees that his wife has run away, he and others immediately begin a search. She runs from the men but is unable to escape. After being captured she returns home only to be locked away. The captured wife makes herself invisible and completes all the house work in silence. She doesn't talk to anyone, but rather spends her time with animals secluding herself from reality. All of the wife's happiness had been swept away. She did everything to separate herself from the human world and create her own save coven. The woman preserves her innocents and sweet kind heart but as the time passes she continues to distance herself from her controlling husband and becomes closer to nature. It comes to the point where the husband begins to ask himself, “What is she to me?” Even as Christmas time comes around she no longer shows her love for him. She separates herself by sleeping in the attic alone. The husband realizes his wife is no longer the woman she was when he fell in love with her. He misses all the things he used to share with her, but he realizes that she has become a different person. Her hair is different, her eyes are different, but it is not only that. She is no longer happy to be by his side. The love is no longer present and the bonds have been broken. All of the happiness is gone and dried up.
 * __Summary: __**

Tone: The tone of the poem is lonely as husband tries to find a solution to his ever changing wife. The woman continues to change and he is lonely for the woman he used to love and adore.
 * __Literary devices: __**

Diction: The poem is told like a narrative story by the husband of the relationship. This distorts the opinions of the wife because we can only see her through his eyes. Having the poem narrated by the husband also adds to the poem. We, as readers, are able to see inside the head of the husband and listen to his reactions and feelings throughout the poem.

Repetition: Mew repeats the word brown in a description of the wife, emphasizing the wife's withdrawal from the human world becoming one with nature, the only thing she has total control over.

Play on words: Mew uses "stare" and "stair" to compare the small difference of the husband and wife at the beginning of the poem to the vast difference at the end. At first just the wife’s "stare" is different, but as she drifts further away from reality the husband and wife are separated by "stairs". The husband and wife become so different that they cannot even be put on the same level. Another example is "hare" and "hair". In the beginning the husband compares the wife to a hare in the way she moved, but by the end all he can notice about her is her hair. What was a small difference by the end of the poem had grown to be one of the prominent factors of difference between the two.

Rhyme: Rhyme is present in //The Farmer's Bride //, but there is no consistent pattern or use of repetition of a rhyme scheme. Rhyme is used internally throughout the poem to put emphasis on the key portions of the poem. For example, "The soft young down of her, the brown," (line 45). Rhyme is also used in the last two lines of each stanza to emphasize the main idea within.

Metaphor: Mew uses metaphors throughout the poem to compare the wife to differing aspects of nature, and helps to describe her transformation throughout her marriage. For example in the fourth stanza Mew writes, "Shy as a leveret, swift as her,/ Straight and slight as a young larch tree

Charlotte Mew was born in Bloomsbury, London to a young architect, Frederick Mew. He designed the Hampstead Town hall, but later died an early death in 1898. Charlotte’s early childhood, after her father death, influenced her life and helps to set the mood for many of her poems. Charlotte’s father left his family no money, and her mother did the best she could taking care of seven kids. In the end, there was just not enough money to take care of them all. Three of Charlottes’ siblings died and two were admitted to an institution due to mental illnesses. Charlotte was scarred by her crumbling family, and she and her remaining sister, Anne, even made a pact swearing never to marry. Some even believed Charlotte to be a lesbian. This is shown in the poem by her resistance to the restricting married life and is a self justification for her absence of a husband. Charlotte wrote very little poetry at the beginning of her writing career and first published a short story in the Yellow Pages in 1894. Later in 1916, Poetry Bookshop first published Mew’s work, //The Farmer’s Bride //, in the format of a chapter book. Charlotte also published many stories and essays, but The Farmer’s Bride is the most well know out of all of her writings. Charlotte’s sister, Anne, later died taking away not only Charlotte’s last sibling but also her best friend. After her death Charlotte became depressed, was admitted into a nursing home, and later committed suicide by drinking Lysol. Her last words were, "Don't keep me, let me go."
 * __<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Biography of Charlotte Mew __**:

Jamie's Analysis Tahar's Analysis Dax's Analysis

//Charlotte Mew (Charlotte Mary Mew) Biography//. N.p., 2009. Web. 5 Dec. 2009. <http://www.jrank.org/literature/pages/5012/ Charlotte-Mew-(Charlotte-Mary-Mew).html>.
 * __Works Sited__**

Faragher, John. "Charlotte Mew." //Spondee//. N.p., 2003. Web. 3 Dec. 2009. <http://www.spondee.net/CharlotteMew/>.