In depth analysis of poem 'Song for Last Year's Wife' by Brian Patten. From GCSE 'Relationships' Poetry (Edexcel).

1. Alice, this is my first winter
of waking without you, of knowing
that you, dressed in familiar clothes
are elsewhere, perhaps not even
conscious of our anniversary.
The tone creates a
contrast between anger
and sadness from the
disappointment that
she may have forgotten
him.
Despite using
direct address and
personal pronouns
to address his
wife, the reader
is still
unknowledgeable as
to whether she is
aware of his
directory.
The author is
consciously
ambiguous as to
whether his wife
is dead or alive.
The initial
reaction from the
reader is one of
empathy as pathos
is created through
the writer’s
language: he is
portrayed as heart
broken and lonely
without his wife.

2. Have
you noticed? The earth’s still as hard,
the same empty gardens exist; it is
as if nothing special had changed,
The images of
winter are
reinforced by the
bleak and sombre
descriptions of
the ‘hard’ earth
and ‘empty’
gardens. These
highlight the
authors
melancholy
emotions that are
absorbed into his
surroundings.
Moreover, the
choice of earth
reignites the
idea of her death
as it could hint
she is buried.
The gardens
symbolise the
author as they
act as a double
meaning: they
personify the
author’s ‘empty’
emotions whilst
displaying the
absent change in
his life.
This could suggest
that her loss
feels even more
noticeable as she
is the only change
in his life.
The question may have been used to emphasise
that, despite no longer being together,
nothing has changed which implies she may have
unjustly blamed the author for the problems in
their relationship.

3. I wake with another mouth feeding
from me, yet still feel as if
Love had not the right
to walk out of me.
The phrase ‘another
mouth feeding’
suggests that the
author has a new
partner and that
perhaps they’re
kissing. However, the
verb ‘feeding’ also
proposes that she is
having an unwanted
draining/consuming
effect on him.
The personification
of love raises the
question as to
whether the wife
has left him on
purpose. Still,
‘not the right’
implies anger with
the wife because
‘walk out of me’
emphasises his
emptiness as
emotion has “left”
him

4. A year now. So
what? you say. I send out my spies.
to discover what you are doing. They smile,
return, tell me your body’s as firm,
you are as alive, as warm and inviting
as when they knew you first ...
The ‘spies’ could be
mutual friends or
perhaps simply his
memories. However, they
emphasise that only they
know her now. This along
with the tone used for
them portrays them as
sly, as perhaps they are
attracted to her or he
is paranoid that they
are. For example, the
repetition of ‘as’ and
rhyme of ‘return’ and
‘firm’ reinforces that
she has “moved on” or is
unchanged without him.
Yet, the phrase ‘send
out’ makes the author
sound oppressive and
manipulative as it
sounds like an order.
The use of an ellipsis
could imply he wants to
forget what his ‘spies’
have said as he doesn’t
want to confront the
truth.
The idea that her memory is like a
ghost is contradicted by description
of ‘firm’, ‘alive’, ‘warm’ and
‘inviting’ which portrays a creation
of pain and sorrow that the author
tries to ignore.

5. Perhaps it is
the winter, its isolation from other seasons,
that sends me your ghost to witness
when I wake.
The repetition of ‘perhaps’ and other
similar adverbs, such as ‘yet’, connote
confusion as the author is unable to
articulate or understand his emotions.
The author uses winter more
explicitly as a metaphor to
symbolises his feelings of
isolation. Yet, his tone also
implies a natural sense of
blame suggesting that he unable
to take responsibility for the
disintegration of his marriage.
The metaphor of
‘ghost to witness’
implies that he
feels that his wife
or her memory has a
haunting effect on
him. This could be
symbolic of the
impact of her loss
as he feels she has
disappeared from
his life. However,
it may resonate an
image of guilt to
the reader and echo
the possibility she
is dead.

6. Somebody came here today, asked
how you were keeping, what
you were doing.
The pronoun ‘somebody’ demonstrates that
life feels of little importance for the
author without his wife and therefore he
is unable to take notice of others.
The tone of this
anecdote could
be perceived as
angry. This is
because the
repetition of
‘you’ might
imply a feeling
of irritation as
he feels
agitated that
people don’t
care about he is
‘keeping’ or
what he is
‘doing’.

7. I imagine you,
waking in another city, touched
by this same hour. So ordinary
a thing as loss comes now and touches me.
This shows the
final
predicament of
the poem as the
author shows
that ‘loss’ has
become a
consumption of
his ‘ordinary’
everyday life.
The repeated personification of time
touching the author and his wife
highlights, like One Flesh, the
juxtaposition in the relationship as
all they share now is time, yet his
time has become a ‘loss’ that he can
see “approaching” to imprint his life.
This continued display of the author imaging his wife suggests that he’d
rather feel disconnected from reality in order to have any emotional
fulfilment. This implies that the memories of their relationship are not
powerful enough to fulfil the void of his loneliness. This could be symbolic
of their previous detached relationship or his present isolation as perhaps
the recycling of his memories can no reincarnate his feelings about his
wife.

8. Title
Song for last year’s wife
The noun ‘song’ implies to the reader
that the poem could be about
something passionate, positive and
celebratory. This is therefore
immediately contrasted by the
realisation that the poem is instead
mournful of a lost wife.
The title is highly
ironic as it makes
marriage seem
temporary and
trivial, much like
the impression
conveyed in My Last
Duchess. However, we
soon discover that
the author is still,
in fact, deeply in
love with his wife.
Like My Last Duchess, the phrase ‘last
year’s’ suggests that the wife could
be dead. However, it also poses a
possible possessiveness about the
relationship that is later echoed in
the poem. It also foreshadows the
disconnection in the relationship as
the wife now only belongs to time.

9. Imagery
● Winter — the poet uses winter as an extended metaphor to symbolise
that he has grown cold and dead since his wife left , conversely the season
is mirroring his emotions and feelings.
● Ghost — the poet uses the metaphor of the ghost to symbolise the
haunting effect his wife has had on him since leaving. It also extends the
emotional loss displayed in the poem, but also, perhaps, the ambiguity of
her death.
● Time — time is a recurring theme that is centralised within the poem
through the poet’s imagery. This could be because he want to emphasise
the particular effect it has physiologically in contributing to the emotions
after a divorce.

10. Rhyme Scheme
Free verse is used to allow the poem to follow the rhythm
of natural speech which emphasises the emotions
conveyed in the dramatic monologue. This is because it
frees the poem to find its own shape according to what the
poet wants to say.

11. Tone
There is a juxtaposition in the tone of the author as he
sounds intimate but also empty and melancholy.
Moreover, at other points his tone take on an angry
manner as he sound irritated with his wife for leaving him
isolated without appearing to care.

12. Structure and Form
● Dramatic monologue — the poet uses a dramatic monologue in
order to solely express the husband’s point of view which emphasises his
solitariness: there is a narrative within the text of the story of his emotions
after his divorce. It places emphasis on the subjective qualities of the poem
and its author that are left to the audience to interpret.
● Enjambment and caesura — could reflect the separation in the
relationship and the author’s inability to control his emotions.
● No division of stanzas — could suggest that the poet is confused
about his feelings and thoughts, but he cannot stop thinking about his wife.

13. Themes
● Love — The speaker talks about his partner in a complementary manner
despite her leaving him suggesting he still loves her and always has.
● Loss — The poem is about how the speaker has been left by his partner
whom he deeply loved causing him great loss shown by “Love had not the
right to walk out of me.”
● Death —Although the poem is not about the speakers’ partner dying
there are a lot of references to death such as “sends me your ghost” and the
mournful tone the poem is written in. As she hasn’t died this gives the
impression that speakers wants the audience to feel like part of him or her
has died.

14. Links to other poems
● My Last Duchess —Similar due to both the speakers having lost their
partner and relationship.
● Our Love Now — Similar because one person in the relationship still
loves the partner but the other person appears to have given up on the
relationship.
● Sonnet 116 —They contrast because Sonnet 116 implies marriage and
love is eternal, but in Song for Last Year’s Wife they’ve broken up yet the
speaker in this poem seems to hold similar views to the speaker in Sonnet
116 that love is eternal and despite the cause indestructible, or perhaps
even deathless.