Summary, Structure & Form

English Lit: AQA GCSE Poetry - Love & Relationships, topic 7.1.1

Summary of The Farmer's Bride

Charlotte Mew was a turn of the century poet. She was born into impoverished circumstances. The Farmer’s Bride explores themes of disappointment, loneliness and longing for a deeper emotional connection.

Background

Charlotte Mew was born in 1869 to a very poor family.
Three of her brothers died when she was a child, and two siblings were committed to mental hospitals later in life.
The Farmer's Bride was published in 1916 and explores the relationship between a farmer and his young bride.

Summary

The poem follows a young farmer who has chosen a new young wife.
They are married in summer, but as soon as the winter arrives, the young wife withdraws from her husband and runs away.
The poem continues as the young wife returns to the farmer, but they never truly interact and the narrator likens her to a hare.
As the winter deepens, so does the farmer’s longing for an emotional and physical connection with his new wife.
The poem ends with the narrator lamenting the emotional distance between two people so geographically close.

Context

Mew explores a relationship that did not begin organically – the farmer chose a young bride that he did not know.
This is a marriage of two strangers, and the poem follows how they fail to connect because of the girl’s youth and fear of her older husband.
Mew’s narrator had hoped marriage would end his loneliness – but instead, the presence of his distant wife has made this loneliness sharper.

Structure and Form in The Farmer's Bride

Here are some examples of the structure and form in The Farmer's Bride

Dramatic monologue

The poem is entirely from the narrator’s perspective - his wife is silent throughout.
This does not necessarily reflect the narrator’s lack of respect for her, but demonstrates their lack of connection.
The reader is allowed as much access to his wife as he has.

Rhythm and Rhyme

The poem is written in iambic tetrameter.
The poem does not have a regular rhyme scheme.
The rhythm of the poem drives the narrative forward, but the lack of rhyme gives the poem a darker and more serious tone.
The brief moments of rhyme are used to highlight certain moments in the poem – such as when his wife returns and when the narrator laments that he has never ‘heard her speak at all.’

Structure

The early stanzas of the poem describe the scene, and give us the facts of the narrative.
But as the poem progresses, we are given more of a sense of the narrator’s longing and desire.
This is reflected in the use of exclamations and dashes in the final stanza. These demonstrate the farmer’s intense feelings and longing for his wife.

Test yourself on Summary, Structure & Form

How many of Charlotte Mew's brothers died when she was a child?
Summary of the Farmer's Bride
What season do the farmer and his bride get married in?
In which stanza of The Farmer's Bride does the poet use exclamations and dashes a lot?
How much does the narrator's wife speak in the poem?

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