The Farmer’s Bride

1. The Farmer’s Bride Making links with The Manhunt and In Paris with You

2. Simple, colloquial language • ‘When us was wed ‘ ‘she runned away’ this is non-grammatical language • Uneducated – limited emotional intelligence- he can’t understand her – pity him? • The speaker in In Paris with You also uses language which seems simple and unconstructed such as when he uses the colloquialism ‘earful’ to show he is fed up hearing about love. What is different between the way the two speaker’s use such unpretentious language?

3. Imagery • ‘Shy as a leveret’ ‘too young maybe -’ ‘young larch tree’ – convey her youth, innocence -implies the match as inappropriate • ‘like a hare’ ‘like a mouse’ timidity, vulnerability (him a predator?) • ‘Her smile went out ‘like the shut of a winter’s day’ brief /cold / darkness descends (emotional shutdown and internalised terror – married to a stranger) • What is the best quote in The Manhunt to compare the presentation of someone in emotional shutdown?

4. Language • ‘We chased her’ ‘we caught her’ ‘turned the key upon her fast’ Verbs from semantic field of hunting – she is prey – reader feels great sympathy Pronoun ‘we’ repeated – they unite in hunt – reader incensed by their witch hunt, she is misunderstood (‘frightened fey’ (fairy)) • Which verbs are used in The Manhunt to convey the ‘hunting actions’ of the speaker? How do they compare?

5. She is uncommunicative • ‘‘Not near not near!’ her eyes beseech’ facial expression is her only form of communication – speech marks show his trying to translate her silence • I’ve hardly heard her speak at all – breakdown in communication. She is more comfortable in company of animals (she is a gentle soul – troubled in past by men? Androphobic?) • Compare theme of communication with Quickdraw?

6. Sadness – feelings of isolation • ‘sweet as the first wild violets, she, / To her wild self. But what to me?’ • In Paris with You ‘I’m maroonded’ • Who is most alone? • Which speaker moves you most? • Can we feel sorry for the farmer?

7. Symbolism • Colour imagery – ‘blue smoke’ ‘low grey sky’ ‘black earth’ associations with coldness, winter, death – parallel the death of their relationship (lack of warmth) • Compare with the death symbolism in Quickdraw ‘silver bullets of your kiss’ ‘take this…and this…’ • Do both couples experience the same metaphorical death of their relationship?

8. Sexual desire • ‘Oh! My God! The down, /the soft down of her […] her eyes, her hair, her hair! • Farmer’s tone shifts to exclamative as his sexual frustration is expressed • Sensual description ‘down’ = soft, silky hairs on body • Repetition ‘down’ and ‘hair’ – overwhelming with longing (unsettles reader) • How does the farmer’s desire compare with that shown by the wife in the Manhunt ‘after passionate nights and intimate days’ and In Paris with you ‘I’m in Paris with your eyes, you mouth’?

9. Structure and form • Five stanzas in chronological order narrate the discontent of the farmer which remains unresolved • Strong rhyme – first stanza abbacdcdd – creates an upbeat mood not in keeping with the tragic subject; the rhyme sensationalises her fears ‘ hare’ ‘scare’ last’ fast’ – rhyme is undignified. How does this change the feelings of the reader for the farmer? • Run-on lines emphasis key words such as ‘Alone’ positioned at start of new line emphasising her solitude in the attic • The rhythm is regular – mostly iambic tetrameter (four feet unstressed/stressed – conversational) but this alters to reveal emotional intensity ‘Not near, not near! Spondees (two stressed syllables) • The final stanza shows his breakdown – his frustration evident from the ! and the - and the • The Manhunt also begins using strong end-rhyme ‘phase’ ‘days’ but then lapses into half-rhyme ‘hold/bone’ and no rhyme ‘thumb/lung’ – is this use of rhyme more or less effective? • The Manhunt does not have a regular rhythm, unlike TFB, why? • Do we see more progress in The Manhunt in terms of emotional reconnection than in TFB? (13 couplets)

10. How to compare (many people did not follow the model paragraph you stuck into your books before the holiday – you need to take responsibility for making progress. Manage your resources effectively) Both FB and MH present difficulty when one person withdraws emotionally. In FB we are told that when they married, the wife’s smile went out ‘Like the shut of a winter’s day’, the simile suggests emotional coldness and the symbolism of winter conveys the death of any affection. Similarly, in MH, we see the husband return from war and his reluctance to be emotionally open. Repetition of the anaphora ‘only then would he let me trace…only then would he let me explore’ reveals the resistance of the man to intimate contact. But whilst progress is apparent in MH as we see she ‘only then did I come close’ to identifying his pain, no such progress occurs in FB and in the final stanza we learn that she sleeps ‘Alone’ in the attic. For me, the emotional shutdown is more moving in MH because the speaker shows such patience and gentleness trying to mend her lover whereas the farmer appears more frustrated that Christmas has been ruined by their lack of children.

11. What we will look at this week: • Unseen poetry – Mirror by Sylvia Plath (15 minutes to practise planning an answer – as discussed last week) • The theme of time (revising Coy Mistress/ Sonnet 43 / Sonnet 116 / Hour) • The theme of desire (revising Coy Mistress / Ghazal / In Paris with You) • Born Yesterday / Praise Song