The Farmer's Bride Theme

Throughout relationship poetry, many feelings and attitudes are expressed through themes such as love and family. These feelings and attitudes bring to light the good and bad character aspects in the persons portrayed in the poems. In Christina Rossetti 's "Sister Maude", the relationship between two sisters is explained. In the poem, Rossetti creates a tense relationship between the siblings with the narrator addressing her sister directly through the poem. Throughout the poem, Rossetti highlights the positive and negative aspects of people through the idea of sisterhood and the concept of betrayal. In Charlotte Mew 's "The Farmer 's Bride", evaluates a marital relationship between a newly married farmer and his bride. The poem expresses the …show more content…
To the farmer, his relationship with his wife should be functional and uncomplicated. However; due to the complicated circumstances he is unable to receive any affection from his bride. "Three summers since I chose a maid, too young maybe—but more 's to do at harvest-time than bide and woo." The attitude the farmer has towards his wife displays how dominant men were towards women during the 19th century. "I chose a maid" the personal pronoun used suggests that the farmer was the one who controlled the relationship. The poem advocates that due to the marriage of the maid at a young age the bride seems to be badly affected and is "uncommunicative and withdrawn" like a little frightened fay". Nonetheless, the farmer does not pay any attention to his wife 's personal feelings. "All in a shiver and a scare we caught her, fetched her home at last and turned the key upon her, fast." The nonchalant attitude the farmer has towards his wife shows that he doesn 't take the bride 's feelings in consideration and simply has no time to "woo" or encourage love. In addition, the farmer 's wife is frequently being compared to wild animals "flying like a hare", "like a mouse", "Shy as a leveret, swift as he" settling the rural setting of the poem and the attitude of the farmer to his wife, as if she needs taming. When she runs away she is labelled as "flying like a hare … All in a shiver and a scare". It sounds as if …show more content…
The farmer in the poem has a deep desire towards his ‘uncommunicative ' wife, "The soft young down of her; the brown, the brown of her - her eyes, her hair, her hair! ‘soft young ' indicates that the wife is of a young age and is more sensitive to the world of marriage, which can lead to depression and separating oneself from any contact with the outside world. It also indicates that the farmers ' bride is still a virgin. The repetition of ‘brown ' and ‘hair ' hints the obsessive nature the farmer has towards his wife. Her beauty is driving the farmer to insanity as he fixates on her beauty. Also, the constant use of exclamation marks suggests the farmer 's confusion and frustration at having no relationship with his wife. Both he and his wife are imprisoned in their own ways. This could be seen as menacing that could possibly lead to destructive behaviour, and in turn, lead to the farmer taking advantage of her. This would lead to the development of a negative character trait in the farmer, highlighting the bad in