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