The poem describes a farmer who married a young woman who seemed afraid of intimacy and human connection. After they were married, she became withdrawn and fearful like "a little frightened fay." She eventually ran away from the farm one night. The farmer and others searched for her and found her shivering with fear, bringing her back home. Now she lives alone in the attic and keeps her distance from the farmer and other men, communicating only with animals. As winter approaches, the farmer expresses frustration at the lack of intimacy in their marriage and becomes obsessed with his wife's physical features, suggesting a growing desire or threat of violence.

1. Reading
‘The Farmer’s Bride’
By Charlotte Mew
Published in 1912

2. Reading
‘The Farmer’s Bride’
By Charlotte Mew

3. Three Summers since I chose a maid,
Too young maybe – but more’s to do
young girl, possibly a virgin

4. At harvest-time than bide and woo.
When us was wed she turned afraid
Of love and me and all things human;
Like the shut of a winter’s day
Simile – dark,
depressing, given up?
wait around Flirt with a view
to marriage

5. Her smile went out, and ’twasn’t a woman –
More like a little frightened fay.
One night, in the Fall, she runned away.
Alliteration of ‘f’ – emphasises fear
fairy

6. ‘Out ’mong the sheep, her be,’ they said,
Should properly have been abed;
But sure enough she wasn’t there
Lying awake with her wide brown stare.
Fear?
Rhyming couplets – passion of
speaker?

7. So over seven-acre field and up-along across the down
We chased her, flying like a hare
Before our lanterns. To Church-Town
All in a shiver and a scare
We caught her, fetched her home at last
And turned the key upon her, fast.
Simile – fast –
terrified!
Onomatopoeia
– petrified!
Rhyming couplet –
speeds up pace

8. She does the work about the house
As well as most, but like a mouse:
Simile - scared.

9. Happy enough to chat and play
With birds and rabbits and such as they,
So long as men-folk keep away.
References to
nature –
innocence,
simple
Why her fear of
men?

10. ‘Not near, not near!’ her eyes beseech
When one of us comes within reach.
The women say that beasts in stall
Look round like children at her call.
I’ve hardly heard her speak at all.
beg Rhyme speeds
up – farmer
getting
desperate?

11. 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?
Repetition of similes – comparing her
to all these natural features –
frustration she’s rejecting him?
Young hare
Positive adjectives –
he’s attracted to her

12. 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
Monosyllables – time passing slowly
– frustration?

13. 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!
frost
Extreme contrast –
like the farmer and
his wife
No child – no
sex?

14. She sleeps up in the attic there
Alone, poor maid. ’Tis but a stair
Betwixt us.
between

15. Oh! my God! the down,
The soft young down of her, the brown,
The brown of her – her eyes, her hair, her hair!
Repetition; internal rhyme – bit manic?
Obsessed? Is he going to attack her?
Soft fine fluffy feathers
– like a baby bird -
vulnerable