The Farmer’s Bride (AQA GCSE English Literature)

Each poetry anthology at GCSE contains 15 poems, and in your exam question you will be given one poem - printed in full - and asked to compare this printed poem to another. As this is a closed-book exam, you will not have access to the second poem, so you will have to know it from memory. Fifteen poems is a lot to revise. However, understanding four things will enable you to produce a top-grade response:

• The meaning of the poem
• The ideas and messages of the poet 
• How the poet conveys these ideas through their methods
• How these ideas compare and contrast with the ideas of other poets in the anthology

Below is a guide to Charlotte Mew’s The Farmer’s Bride, from the Love and Relationships anthology. It includes:

• Overview: a breakdown of the poem, including its possible meanings and interpretations
• Writer’s Methods: an exploration of the poet’s techniques and methods
• Context: an exploration of the context of the poem, relevant to its themes
• What to compare it to: ideas about which poems to compare it to in the exam

In order to answer an essay question on any poem it is vital that you understand what it is about. This section includes:

• The poem in a nutshell
• A ‘translation’ of the poem, section-by-section
• A commentary of each of these sections, outlining Charlotte Mew’s intention and message

The Farmer’s Bride in a nutshell

The Farmer’s Bride, written by the Victorian poet Charlotte Mew, presents a dysfunctional marriage between an uncommunicative farmer and his frightened bride. The poem comments on possessive and imbalanced romantic relationships which lead to aggression and isolation, and, thus, question gender roles and societal norms regarding marriage.

The Farmer’s Bride overview

Lines 1-3

“Three summers since I chose a maid,

Too young maybe—but more’s to do

At harvest-time than bide and woo.” 

Translation

• The poem’s speaker informs the reader he has been married for three years
• He implies his bride was not ready for marriage, but that he did not have time to waste picking a more suitable bride

Mew’s intention

• Mew’s speaker adopts a matter-of-fact tone to describe his marriage
• He suggests his work as a farmer is more important than his bride or their relationship
• Here, Mew, illustrates how the relationship is not based on love; the bride is there to serve a function
• Mew foreshadows its doomed fate by suggesting the relationship is imbalanced and forced

Lines 4-5

“When us was wed she turned afraid

Of love and me and all things human;”

Translation

• The speaker tells readers of the bride’s extreme reaction to the marriage
• Mew presents a young woman so petrified by the marriage that she turns away from love and other people, as well as her new husband 

Mew’s intention

• Mew shows the farmer aware of her fear, and so he is complicit in her anxiety and isolation
• The readers learn how that the young bride seems  traumatised by the relationship
• Thus, Mew questions Victorian values regarding marriage and gender roles

Lines 6-8

“Like the shut of a winter’s day

Her smile went out, and ’twadn’t a woman—

More like a little frightened fay.”

Translation

• The speaker compares his bride’s reaction to nature 
• Her sadness began immediately and abruptly
• She is like a frightened and vulnerable deer

Mew’s Intention

• These lines show the farmer’s deep reflections on his bride’s emotions
• He seems aware of her fear, yet reluctant or unable to act upon it
• Mew’s farmer speaks in a colloquial dialect, suggesting perhaps his simple nature and a lack of social sophistication

Line 9

“One night, in the Fall, she runned away.”

Translation

• Here, the farmer explains his bride tried to leave under cover of darkness
• He reveals her sense of being trapped 

Mew’s intention 

• Mew shows the desperation of the young bride
  • She challenges societal expectations regarding young marriage and marriages created out of contractual obligation

Lines 10-13

“Out ’mong the sheep, her be,” they said,

’Should properly have been abed;

But sure enough she wadn’t there

Lying awake with her wide brown stare.”

Translation

• The dialogue represents the people of the village who help the farmer find her
• The farmer imagines her laying in the barn with a blank expression on her face, but she is not there

Mew’s intention

• Here, Mew shows the villagers as complicit in the bride’s fate
• She challenges societal values by asking readers to consider their part in a young bride’s desperation
• Mew’s farmer implies he is familiar with his bride’s “wide brown stare” suggesting, again, he is aware of her trauma

Lines 14-16

“So over seven-acre field and up-along across the down

We chased her, flying like a hare

Before our lanterns. To Church-Town”

 

Translation

• The speaker narrates the search for his bride; the village helps track her as she flees
• Here, Mew shows the fear of the young bride, powerless against a number of villagers in the darkness

Mew’s intention

• Mew presents the power imbalance in the relationship by presenting the young girl running from a group: she is vulnerable and alone
• Mew challenges readers with this vivid and shocking description

Lines 17-19

“All in a shiver and a scare

We caught her, fetched her home at last

And turned the key upon her, fast.”

Translation

• The speaker describes how the villagers caught her and locked her up 

Mew’s intention

• Mew’s poem takes a sinister tone as readers see the violent action of the villager and the farmer toward the frightened girl
• He seems relieved to have her home and less concerned with the assault on her or her own wishes
• Mew questions societal values regarding gender roles and marital codes of conduct: the farmer narrates this aggression as if it is normal

Lines 20-26

“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 keep away.

“Not near, not near!” her eyes beseech

When one of us comes within reach.”

Translation

• The farmer explains that since that night, his bride has surrendered to him a little
• She fulfils her domestic role but is still not happy
• He explains she is scared of men and has isolated herself with only small animals for company

Mew’s intention

• Here, Mew presents an uncompassionate farmer with little love for his bride
• He appears pleased she completes the housework but is not happy with her lack of communication or fear of men
• Again, the farmer seems unaware of his part in this

Lines 27-33

“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?”

Translation

• The farmer has been told that the animals have a close relationship with his bride, and he questions her commitment to him
• He believes her wild nature is the reason for the lack of love in their marriage

Mew’s intention

• Here, Mew presents the bride as capable of love and having a relationship, yet choosing animals instead of men: this shows her extreme fear and isolation
• Mew presents the farmer as unable to understand her reactions
• He blames her untameable nature, while the obvious reason seems to elude him
• Thus, Mew challenges gender roles by presenting imbalanced, forced relationships as frustrating for both individuals

Lines 34-41

“The short days shorten and the oaks are brown,

 The blue smoke rises to the low grey 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!”

Translation

• The speaker describes the passing of time 
• The farmer’s frustration grows as they have still not had a child

Mew’s intention

• Here, the farmer’s vivid descriptions of the changing seasons contrasts the lack of change in their relationship
• Mew presents the marriage as functional as the farmer is frustrated they have not had a child: he implies the lack of physical contact between them

Lines 42-44

“She sleeps up in the attic there

Alone, poor maid. ’Tis but a stair

Betwixt us. Oh! my God! the down,”

Translation

• The farmer ends explaining that they are still apart
• He believes her to be lonely
• He thinks it is only a stair which separates them

Mew’s intention

• Here, Mew shows a frustrated farmer, incapable of empathy
• His belief that the distance between them is simply a staircase shows him unable to understand his bride
• His despondent tone suggests Mew presents him as as incapable of communicating with his bride, which leads to his frustration

Lines 45-46

“The soft young down of her, the brown,

The brown of her—her eyes, her hair, her hair!” 

Translation

• The poem ends on an emotional exclamation
• The farmer shows his strong desire to be near her 

Mew’s intention

• The poem ends unresolved; the farmer is left thinking of his bride and the distance between them
• Mew shows the frustration of the farmer through his unstable voice 
• Mew’s ending suggests the relationship remains stuck, with both the farmer and his bride unable to resolve their pain

Although this section is organised into three separate sections - form, structure and language - it is always best to move from what the poet is presenting (the techniques they use; the overall form of the poem; what comes at the beginning, middle and end of a poem) to how and why they have made the choices they have. 

Focusing on the poet’s overarching ideas, rather than individual poetic techniques, will gain you far more marks. Crucially, in the below sections, all analysis is arranged by theme, and includes Charlotte Mew’s intentions behind her choices in terms of:

• Form
• Structure
• Language

Form

Charlotte Mew’s poem presents a husband and simple farmer who expresses and explores his feelings of frustration within his marriage. The Farmer’s Bride is a long monologue which represents the slow passing of time and the lack of development in their relationship. 

Theme	Evidence	Poet’s intention
Complex relationships	The first-person speaker delivers a dramatic monologue about his bride	The male speaker is given a voice so that his perspective is shown throughout the poem and the reader is allowed to judge his thoughts and actions
	The poem’s length contributes to the farmer’s sense of frustration, which inevitably leads to an unresolved ending	Their complex and stifled relationship is depicted through the narration of passing time, but Mew ends the poem with the distance between them remaining It was “three summers since he chose a bride” Later, the “short days shorten” and still they are apart
	Charlotte Mew presents complex and imbalanced romantic relationships by presenting the perspective of a male speaker, stuck and unable to communicate with his bride, and thus unable to resolve their mutual pain

Structure

The poem presents the farmer’s confusion and frustration through changes in tone as he narrates his thoughts and experiences. The speaker’s despondence is presented through the gradual decline of their marriage and his growing frustration. 

Theme	Evidence	Poet’s intention
Possessive Desire	The poem mostly follows iambic tetrameter which creates a lively and conversational tone despite the terrible circumstances of his relationship Even when he is chasing her he sounds matter-of-fact: “One night, in the Fall, she runned away.”	Charlotte Mew presents the farmer sounding casual as he narrates a sinister tale of chasing his bride and locking her up: this comments on social norms by presenting his abuse of power as normal
	The poet uses enjambment and caesurae with irregular rhyming lines as the poem progresses, showing the growing frustration with his uneven tone: “Alone, poor maid. ’Tis but a stair/Betwixt us. Oh! my God! the down,”	The speaker’s tone is emotional at times as he tries to control his frustrated desire: Mew presents a sympathetic speaker to show both perspectives in the marriage
	The speaker expresses his dismay at his bride’s lack of commitment to him: He asks a rhetorical question:  “But what to me?” He has “hardly heard her speak at all”	Mew comments on frustrated desire through the confused voice of the farmer: in this way she represents a lack of communication in the relationship as the barrier
	Charlotte Mew challenges Victorian ideas of marriage and gender roles in the poem which presents the perspective of an insensitive farmer abusing his power and frustrated with desire as a result of his actions

Language

Charlotte Mew uses natural imagery to represent the relationship between the farmer and his bride as isolating and imbalanced. The descriptive language evokes vivid comparisons which symbolises violence and fear within the marriage. 

Theme	Evidence	Poet’s intention
Abuse of power	The poet highlights the abrupt change in the bride after the marriage by using alliteration: “When we was wed”, “winters day” and “wadn’t a woman”	The dull sounding tone of the alliteration when the farmer speaks, as well as the colloquial dialect, presents him as insensitive and simplistic
	The speaker compares his bride with small and vulnerable animals She is like a “frightened fay”, “like a hare”, “like a mouse” and “shy as a leveret”	Here, the speaker uses simile and natural imagery to imply his wife is wild and difficult to tame, and he shows he is aware of her fear and vulnerability
	The poem ends with the farmer’s clear desire for his young bride: “The soft young down of her, the brown,/The brown of her”	Despite the farmer’s acknowledgment that his bride was too young to wed, he ends the poem with repetition suggesting he desires her because of this
	Charlotte Mew presents the bride’s extreme response to the marriage and violence with sibilance: “All in a shiver and a scare”	Mew’s young bride is presented as a victim, afraid and shocked, after villagers catch her and lock her up
	Charlotte Mew challenges social norms with a poem which shows abuse within a forced marriage which is normalised by the farmer and the community, resulting in isolation for both the farmer and his bride

Examiners repeatedly state that context should not be considered as additional factual information: in this case, it is not random biographical information about Charlotte Mew or the Victorian era which is unrelated to the ideas in The Farmer’s Bride. The best way to understand context is as the ideas and perspectives explored by Charlotte Mew in The Farmer’s Bride which relate to love and relationships. This section has therefore been divided into two relevant themes that Mew explores:

• Complex romantic relationships
• Desire and longing

Complex romantic relationships

• Charlotte Mew’s poem presents an imbalanced and complex relationship between a busy farmer and a young bride to question social norms regarding marriage
• Their marriage is one of necessity and function
• The bride is too young to marry 
• The bride is chosen, suggesting her lack of free choice
• Mew comments on gender roles by showing a sympathetic farmer unable to communicate or understand the distance between the pair
• The farmer’s confusion is explained by the complicity of the villagers who help him catch his bride when she runs away
• Mew shows him as a product of his environment as he never questions his part in his bride’s depression and anxiety

Desire and longing

• The Farmer’s Bride, by Victorian poet, Charlotte Mew, was written at a time when the issue of women’s suffrage was being debated, and in the context of a patriarchal, British society
• Fathers and husbands had control over decisions regarding marriage
• Mew’s poem challenges this as she presents the farmer’s oppressive control over his wife, with the community’s support
• The poem comments on rigid gender roles by showing the bride’s predominantly domestic role in the relationship, and how this creates distance between them
• Charlotte Mew believed that marriage could lead to mental illness
• Mew depicts a fearful and traumatised bride, scared of her husband and men in the village, to show the impact of possessive relationships

The essay you are required to write in your exam is a comparison of the ideas and themes explored in two of your anthology poems. It is therefore essential that you revise the poems together, in pairs, to understand how each poet presents ideas about love or relationships, in comparison to other poets in the anthology. Given that The Farmer’s Bride explores the ideas of complex relationships and frustrated desire, the following comparisons are the most appropriate:

• The Farmer’s Bride and and Porphyria’s Lover 
• The Farmer’s Bride and Love’s Philosophy 
• The Farmer’s Bride and Sonnet 29 - ‘I think of thee!’

For each pair of poems, you will find:

• The comparison in a nutshell
• Similarities between the ideas presented in each poem
• Differences between the ideas presented in each poem
• Evidence and analysis of these similarities and differences

The Farmer’s Bride and Porphyria’s Lover

Comparison in a nutshell:

Both Charlotte Mew’s The Farmer’s Bride and Robert Browning’s Porphyria’s Lover convey a speaker’s possessive attitude toward romantic relationships by abusing their power over vulnerable females. The speaker’s frustrated desire results in violence and destruction.   

Similarities:

Topic sentence	Both poems present controlling and possessive speakers
Evidence and analysis	The Farmer’s Bride	Porphyria’s Lover
	Charlotte Mew’s farmer uses simile to compare his young bride to small, vulnerable animals He compares her to a “frightened fay”, “like a hare”, like “a mouse” and “shy as a leveret” He is aware of her fear of him and all men	Similarly, Browning’s speaker sees his lover, Porphyria, as small and vulnerable He strangles “her little throat” and props up “her rosy little head”
	The speaker believes his bride is not committed to him in the way he expects She works around the house “as well as most” but she does not talk to him His rhetorical question doubts her commitment to him: “But what to me?”	Browning’s speaker also doubts Porphyria’s commitment: she is “too weak” from “pride” and “vainer ties” and will not reserve her love only for him
	The farmer’s tone is matter-of-fact, and he seems to be aware of his own power as he chases after his escaped bride with the villagers: “We caught her, fetched her home at last/And turned the key upon her, fast.”	Browning’s speaker is in control of his emotions, suggesting his sense of his own power as he “debates what to do” The caesurae shows his calm tone, “And strangled her. No pain felt she;/I am quite sure she felt no pain.”
	Mew and Browning challenge gender roles and codes of conduct within romantic relationship by presenting male speakers who are possessive, yet unaware of their abuse of power

Topic sentence	Both poets illustrate romantic relationships which are imbalanced and destructive
Evidence and analysis	The Farmer’s Bride	Porphyria’s Lover
	The speaker’s frustrated desire is presented through the long narration of passing time, during which the farmer and his bride do not communicate The farmer has “hardly heard her speak at all”	Browning’s speaker, similarly, presents a silent detachment in his dramatic monologue of the night’s events, during which he does not communicate with his lover: when she calls him he does not reply
	The speaker’s destructive actions result in isolation for both the farmer and his bride She is alone in the attic, scared of her husband after her failed attempt to escape	The speaker, here, acts destructively within his relationship too, as he strangles Porphyria and now has full control over her: “Her head, which droops”
	Mew and Browning question uncommunicative relationships based on imbalanced power through their male speaker’s destructive actions on vulnerable females

Differences:

Topic sentence	While Charlotte Mew’s poem ends unresolved with the farmer and his bride apart, Robert Browning’s poem depicts an intimate night which ends with a violent resolution
Evidence and analysis	The Farmer’s Bride	Porphyria’s Lover
	The speaker’s frustration and longing for his bride is shown sympathetically at the end of the poem via emotional sensory language: “The brown of her—her eyes, her hair, her hair!”	In Porphyria’s Lover, the speaker describes his lover with sensory language too, but here he has killed her and is presented as cruel The violence is emphasised with the alliteration: “Blushed bright beneath my burning kiss:”
	The isolation and distance in the relationship remains unresolved The bride is alone in the attic  The farmer’s frustration is shown in the caesurae and enjambment:”‘Tis but a stair/Betwixt us.Oh! My God!”	The closeness of Porphyria to the speaker does not seem to move him until he kills her and begins to show his pleasure at possessing her: “That moment she was mine, mine, fair,”
	Both poets challenge oppressive and controlling relationships, however Mew presents continuing pain for both the farmer and the bride, while Browning presents a speaker pleased with his possession of his lover at the end, despite the fact she is now dead

The Farmer’s Bride and Love’s Philosophy

Comparison in a nutshell:

This is an effective comparative choice to explore desire and longing within complex romantic relationships. Both Charlotte Mew’s The Farmer’s Bride and Shelley’s Love’s Philosophy present speakers who are frustrated as they are denied physical love which they believe they deserve.

Similarities:

Topic sentence	Both poems show longing as a result of denied physical love in romantic relationships
Evidence and analysis	The Farmer’s Bride	Love’s Philosophy
	Charlotte Mew’s first-person speaker is frustrated with his silent and unresponsive bride He says he has “hardly heard her speak at all”  He is confused: “But what to me?”	Similarly, Shelley’s first-person speaker directly addresses a silent lover in a persuasive and romantic plea He also asks rhetorical questions, “Why not I with thine?”
	The speaker presents his desire through sensory language: “Oh! my God! the down,/The soft young down of her,”	Shelley, too, shows the desire for physical love through emotional sensory language: “the sunlight clasps the earth/And the moonbeams kiss the sea”
	The poets comment on the overwhelming power of denied physical love within romantic relationships by showing the desperation of the speakers’ voices

Topic sentence	Both poems present male speakers whose language suggests they see physical love as natural and reasonable to expect within romantic relationships
Evidence and analysis	The Farmer’s Bride	Love’s Philosophy
	Mew’s farmer is confused by the lack of intimacy in their marriage His perspective is that a child is a natural part of marriage His exclamation suggests his strong feelings: “What’s Christmas-time without there be/Some other in the house than we!”	Shelley’s speaker, too, suggests it is natural and expected for them to come together in unity as part of his argument for intimacy: “All things by a law divine In one spirit meet and mingle.”
	Mew’s speaker is left with unresolved feelings of desire at the end of the poem, illustrated with repetition to show his extreme emotions: “the brown/The brown of her—her eyes, her hair, her hair!”	Similarly, Shelley’s speaker is left  waiting, and with unresolved feelings of desire at the end of the poem: “What is all this sweet work worth/If thou kiss not me?
	Both poems comment on gender roles by showing male speakers who are certain physical love is the answer to the painful emotions of longing and desire, although neither speaker resolves their frustrations and are left confused

 Differences:

Topic sentence	While Charlotte Mew’s poem presents an imbalanced relationship between the farmer and his frightened bride, Shelley speaks about love as unifying to an unknown, prospective lover
Evidence and analysis	The Farmer’s Bride	Love’s Philosophy
	Mew shows a possessive relationship and a farmer who is aware he is frightening his bride He uses simile to compare her to small and vulnerable animals: “a frightened fay”, a “mouse” and a “shy leveret”	Shelley’s speaker, however, presents love as blissfully and spiritually unifying with personification “The winds of heaven mix for ever/With a sweet emotion;”, the “waves clasp” one another and the “mountains kiss”
	The farmer speaks of his bride in third person, which presents the distance between them, and refers to her in a detached and colloquial manner: “and’twadn’t a woman—”	Shelley’s speaker uses elevated language in a more personal direct address to his lover to connote reverent love He addresses her as “thee” and “thou”
	Both poems discuss romantic love, however Shelley’s poem presents love as pure and equally gratifying for both partners, whereas Mew’s poem depicts a possessive and detached marriage

The Farmer’s Bride and Sonnet 29 - ‘I think of thee!’ 

Comparison in a nutshell:

Both Charlotte Mew’s The Farmer’s Bride and Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s Sonnet 29 - ‘I think of thee!’ convey powerful feelings of desire within frustrated romantic relationships. However, Barrett Browning’s poem shows physical harmony as a resolution and Mew’s ends only with relentless, unresolved longing.  

Similarities:

Topic sentence	Both poems highlight the confusing emotions of frustrated love in romantic relationships
Evidence and analysis	The Farmer’s Bride	Sonnet 29 - ‘I think of thee!’
	In Charlotte Mew’s dramatic monologue the speaker compares his bride to nature The farmer believes his bride to be too wild and untameable: “Sweet as the first wild violets, she,/To her wild self. But what to me?”	Similarly, the first-person speaker in Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s poem illustrates her love with a simile describing nature as untamed: “—my thoughts do twine and bud/About thee, as wild vines, about a tree,”
	The speakers evoke natural imagery to suggest love is uncontrollable
	Mew’s speaker’s frustration about his lover is expressed with caesurae and exclamation  to present his longing: “Betwixt us. Oh! my God! the down,”	Similarly, Barrett Browning’s speaker expresses her frustration with emotional exclamations and caesurae: “I will not have my thoughts instead of thee/Who art dearer, better! Rather, instantly”
	The poets both comment on the frustration of a thwarted desire to be close to their lover by creating speakers with unstable voices