"The Farmer's Bride" by Charlotte Mew (poetry reading)

The poem has to be read with a Dorset burr, not in an standard English voice, but I've tried to minimise the accent to avoid making a mockery of it.

Charlotte Mew made a great impression on Ezra Pound and she was a favourite of Thomas Hardy's.

She was a lesbian at a difficult time and chastity was virtually forced upon her by social mores. She was similar to A.E. Housman in that repression of homosexuality led to an unfulfulled life, which shows in her work and temperament. By any standards, life and society were terribly cruel to her. You can read more about her and about this poem here:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/booksblog/2008/sep/01/poemoftheweekthefarmersb
and a lot more about her life here:
http://www.studymore.org.uk/ymew.htm

When the farmer says that she is uncomfortable in the presence of "men-folk" he means just himself, she being afraid that he might want his "conjugal rights" (as they were then).

When he says, "What's Christmas-time without there be some other in the house than we?" he is regretting the absence of a child after two-and-a-half years of marriage.

The poem is reminiscent of Stella Gibbon's comic novel "Cold Comfort Farm", written in 1932, and I suspect that the character of Elfine was influenced by this poem. If you haven't read this wonderfully funny book then, shame on you, you must correct this deficiency as soon as you can.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cold_Comfort_Farm

The Portrait of a Young Girl 1878 was painted by Charles Sillem Lidderdale.

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Entertainment

Tags:

• Farmer's
• Bride
• Charlotte
• Mew

[theinkbrain]

Thank you for this lovely reading. Personally I think you could have turned up the accent without fear of insult or ridicule. I am indebted to you for the links provided here. I just finished doing a post on Mew in my blog, and I wish her remarkable work would be better known.

[sevillana9]

Wow. I don't think I can put into words how much better this reading is than the AQA one, which has virtually no emotion whatsoever. The whole of my English class were falling asleep. Thanks for this.

[chuckler1]

Wonderfully evocative. Thank you

[EyeLean5280]

Very powerful.

[Temorablue]

Thank you for doing this so well.

[AdiemusBC]

Can you read "Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow" by Shakespiere please?