Sunday 26 February 2017

Elizabeth Thomas - The Forsaken Wife

Hi everyone,


The final line is potentially in reference to contemporary politics.  I found an undergraduate informal essay that outlined some interesting thoughts, including an explanation of the legal & political setting Thomas wrote in.  I will have gone over quite a bit in class, but this is still worth a look as it is the vital framework through which the reader views the author's outrage and sense of injustice.

Information on Thomas's background is generally a quick read, but here's a pretty good link.

For analysis purposes, use the regularities to highlight the anomalies.  Consider the unusual effects of the caesuras and the possible intentions of the half-rhymes, the 9 syllable lines (and the one 7 syllable line), and the concrete indents that begin stanzas 2 and 3.

Additionally, what is the reason for repeating particular words within a stanza?  What happens when the words are used in different stanzas?


- T. Marcus

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