The narrator muses on her childhood days and the wedding to her husband to reveal themes of memory and recollection. Accessed November 13, 2020. https://www.coursehero.com/lit/The-River-Merchants-Wife/. This question suggests that, while she chooses not to exercise it, she has the option of searching for other lovers. Upload them to earn free Course Hero access! One important theme in the poem reveals the process through which the love between the man and woman develops. This image shows concretely from the beginning that the speaker is looking back from a different perspective, as a person who has changed greatly over time. For example, she describes an idyllic scene from her childhood in which she and her future husband play together as "two small people, without dislike or suspicion." She goes on to describe "the paired butterflies ... already yellow with August." This distance causes the narrator feel isolated and lonely as she awaits her husband’s return. The haircut described in this line is a child's haircut in the culture of the poem's characters, which implies that the speaker has grown and aged and now wears her hair differently. Although she does not openly question his faithfulness or suggest she loves him less now than before, it seems possible her confidence in her relationship is shaken by her husband's absence. The speaker's decision to highlight the lack of "dislike" and "suspicion" in her childhood suggests she will experience both feelings later. Her request for word of her husband's return at the end may be a willful attempt to turn away from worry and grief. Each of these images provides a brief glimpse of a particular moment. In the opening lines of the poem, the wife recalls her childhood when her husband was simply a playmate, a companion. The River-Merchant's Wife Study Guide. Ezra Pound's "The River-Merchant's Wife: A Letter," a dramatic monologue written in the form of a letter, is a poignant plea from a wife to her husband, a merchant whose journey has lasted far too long for the wife's ease of mind. This Study Guide consists of approximately 28 pages of chapter summaries, quotes, character analysis, themes, and more - The use of the passive tense, making bangs the subject, helps create the world from a child's perspective, not actively involved in decisions... Get The River Merchant's Wife: A Letter from Amazon.com. ‘The River-Merchant’s Wife: A Letter’ is generally considered to be the most popular poem of the collection and one of the best of his career. It begins with a simple childhood friendship and flourishes in spite of the wife's initial hesitancy in marriage. The opening lines of the poem read, "While my hair was still cut straight across my forehead / I played about the front gate, pulling flowers." Alternatively, she may be clinging to her memory of her heady, girlish love, so much so that she finds it more painful to behave like a lonely, left-behind wife. Copyright © 2016. In view of this, her final sentiments in the poem could be read as a willful attempt to see the future changes in her life as pleasant ones. The river-merchant's wife manifests as a complex human being who feels multiple layers of emotion about each phase of her life. "The River-Merchant's Wife: A Letter," for example, communicates with depth and poignance the human experience of sorrow at separation, the human experience of love. Their form, style, and use of language were all new, something that Pound strived for throughout his career. It pains the speaker to see the symbols of time passing. In her loneliness, the sight of the butterflies "paired" in mating is painful. In line 22 the sadness of the river-merchant's wife is again reflected back to her by the natural world, by the falling leaves and wind of autumn. March 20, 2020. She observes the changes in nature, from the "sorrowful noise" of the monkeys to the couplings of butterflies, with a tone of suffering. It's unclear if he'll ever come back. Also, the line suggests that in spite of her love for her husband, the wife is reluctant to stand watch, waiting for his return. This simple, concrete image of child's play is complicated by the word "still," which indicates that the speaker's hair is not cut this way anymore. Near the end of the poem, the speaker focuses on concrete nature imagery in a way that conveys the changing of the seasons and the passage of time. Web. Have study documents to share about The River-Merchant's Wife? Ezra Pound's "The River-Merchant's Wife: A Letter," a dramatic monologue written in the form of a letter, is a poignant plea from a wife to her husband, a merchant whose journey has lasted far too long for the wife's ease of mind. As she watches the butterflies, she is both aware of her present pain and conscious of the changes she will continue to experience in life. This line comes in the context of the idea of turning back into dust, which makes even this expression of eternal love seem painfully aware of endings. Another possibility is that the wife regrets her behavior in the first year with her husband, before she found out how difficult it would be to live without him. As the poem progresses the wife lingers over her thoughts of her husband's departure, his long absence, and his dangerous journey. Course Hero, Inc. As a reminder, you may only use Course Hero content for your own personal use and may not copy, distribute, or otherwise exploit it for any other purpose. "The River-Merchant's Wife Study Guide." Pound follows this sentiment with an incongruous question: "Why should I climb the look out?" Perhaps she is angry with him for staying away so long or suspicious of his actions while away, and she does not want to watch for him. 20 Mar. Nevertheless, she ends her letter with hope of reunion. everything you need to sharpen your knowledge of The River Merchant's Wife. The poem ends with the wife looking forward into a future in which she feels a different emotion instead. This context adds a tinge of pain even to this moment of heady love. "The River-Merchant's Wife Study Guide." The poem is concerned with love between a husband and wife that is complicated by the distance that now separates them. As the poem progresses from the speaker's marriage at age 14 to her discovery of love at 15 to her first taste of loneliness at 16, the river-merchant's wife is aging before the listener. Now the wife is deeply cognizant of the fact that she will not always remain the same. 13 Nov. 2020. She does not openly state that she is afraid her husband may have died or chosen to stay away. The wife does not specifically say she regrets the first year of her marriage, but Pound includes them in the same stanza as the lines about childhood. Like the wife herself, the love in the poem evolves through several forms. Order our The River Merchant's Wife: A Letter Study Guide, teaching or studying The River Merchant's Wife: A Letter. At the same time, nearly every line hints that the speaker's feelings about the moment it describes have changed over time. She may long for simpler days when she did not yet understand adult problems. This poem takes the form of a letter from a lonely wife to her husband who has been away for work for five months. Course Hero. The poem is concerned with love between a husband and wife that is complicated by the distance that now separates them. Browse Library, Teacher Memberships The playing child, the reluctant bride, and the enamored teenaged wife all seemed caught up in the moment, unaware of the changes that will occur to each of them. Themes in The River Merchant's Wife: A Letter This poem takes the form of a letter from a lonely wife to her husband who has been away for work for five months. | In this stanza, we're able to definitively establish a timeline for the speaker, placing her husband's departure in March, five months before August, when summer gives way to fall. In keeping with the imagist principle of focusing on a "direct treatment of the 'thing,'" Ezra Pound (1885–1972) does not explain or interpret the images he presents in "The River-Merchant's Wife: A Letter." See in text (Text of the Poem). She comments, "The monkeys make sorrowful noise overhead," as if her environment reflects her sadness. . In the context of the husband's absence, the images of the moss on the gate and the leaves falling seem to suggest an agony of waiting. | The word already suggests that for her, time seems to be passing too quickly, as each day with no word from her husband stretches her loneliness further. This subtly suggests a link between them, perhaps because they are both periods of ignorance when the wife did not know how deeply she could love or grieve. Retrieved November 13, 2020, from https://www.coursehero.com/lit/The-River-Merchants-Wife/. But because Pound presents the poem as a letter, it is clear the lovers are currently separated. Because of this, the thematic content of the poem is very much brought to the poem by the listener. By the end of the poem the speaker's love seems to have matured. The poem honors constancy and faithfulness as the wife reflects on the development of their life together and expresses her growing sorrow as she anxiously awaits his return. The speaker seems painfully aware that her husband is not present to witness these changes with her. I grow older..."  The second stanza focuses on the speaker's love for her husband, with whom she wants to remain "forever and forever, and forever." (2020, March 20). Owl Eyes is an improved reading and annotating experience for classrooms, book clubs, and literature lovers. Course Hero. Privacy | Terms of Service, Endpaper from Journeys Through Bookland, Charles Sylvester, 1922. "They hurt me. In Pound's translation, "The River-Merchant's Wife: A Letter" consists of a series of concrete images from the character's life. School Memberships, © 2020 OwlEyes.org, Inc. All Rights Reserved. / I grow older." In this passage, the love is deep and apparently boundless. Although the moment she describes sounds happy and sweet, the tone carries a note of regret. Grief and regret play a central role in "The River-Merchant's Wife: A Letter." Course Hero. Each passing year brings tremendous change along with it, so that the woman at the end of the poem is completely transformed, barely recognizable as the same person she was a year or two—or three—before. Find full texts with expert analysis in our extensive library. In this time, two seasons have passed, a garden has grown, and the speaker has spent much time staring at the river, awaiting her husband's return. The first line gives a vivid picture of the wife as a child. In spite of all the conflict and sadness it contains, "The River-Merchant's Wife: A Letter" is a love poem. She is intensely aware of nature, and the sights and sounds around her remind her of her grief. It explores themes of love, loss, and separation. She has learned how difficult it is to be lonely and uncertain of her husband's safety. The poem contains many words and phrases alluding to the passage of time, each adding to the sense that the speaker is aging and changing. Course Hero. She anticipates her husband's return, and she plans to travel to meet him. Download a PDF to print or study offline. By the time the wife is 15, she is so deeply enamored with her husband that she never wants to be separated from him: "I desired my dust to be mingled with yours / Forever and forever, and forever."

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