The River Merchants Wife A Letter English Literature Essay
Set in China, Ezra Pounds The River-Merchants Wife: A Letter tells the narrative of a sixteen-year-old adolescent who is married to a river merchandiser. Seen through the eyes of the storyteller, who is the adolescent, the verse form focuses on imagination to make a universe of emotions. Pound divides her verse form in three stanzas and each one represents a memory the storyteller has with the river-merchant.
To get down with, the first stanza shows the storyteller ‘s friendly relationship with the river-merchant. Because Ezra Pound was born in 1885, the verse form likely happens during the modern age, but the reader does non hold adequate information to exactly cognize the clip period. The narrative starts with the storyteller drawing flowers in forepart of the chief gate. This suggests that she is from a high category household because she plays in forepart of a sign of the zodiac ‘s dirt that perchance belongs to her parents. This besides suggests that she kills clip while she waits for something to come. While she plays, the river-merchant comes “ by on bamboo piles, playing Equus caballus ” ( Pound 213, 3 ) and he so juggles with bluish plums in forepart of the miss. This suggests that they are kids holding a good clip. The old scene pictures a typical kids ‘s manner of life where all they do is hold fun. They are “ two little people, without disfavor or intuition, ” ( Pound 213, 6 ) in the small town of Chokan ; they seem to hold a stable friendly relationship. Therefore, half of the stanza shows how beautiful a kids ‘s life is.
She so marries the river-merchant at age 14 and she refers to the him as “ My Lord you ” ( Pound 213, 7 ) . Because “ you ” is at the terminal of the line and written after “ My Lord, ” there is a negative subvocalization. This suggests that there is forced matrimony because the miss is 14 old ages old and she sounds as if she does non love the river-merchant ; she is non ready for a serious relationship. In the last three lines of the stanza, the storyteller tells how timid she is when she looks at a wall for some clip while her name is being called many times. It is possible that because she ne’er asked for matrimony, she feels sad for she does non desire to be with the river-merchant. She besides might be believing about how sad she will be for the remainder of her life with her hubby.
Then, the 2nd stanza Tells shows the river-merchant ‘s going. The bends 15 old ages old and she starts to love her hubby ; she wants her dust to be assorted with his forever. It took her a twelvemonth to get down loving him. The storyteller so writes: “ Why should I mount the sentinel? ” ( Pound 213, 14 ) . It is possible that the river-merchant is gone merchandising goods along rivers because that is his occupation and the clip has come for him to go forth his married woman behind to do money. The storyteller might mount a sentinel in hope of descrying her hubby, but what she likely means is that there is no usage of mounting one since he will non come back place faster. It besides means that she misses him. She might desire to see her hubby every bit shortly as possible, but when a merchandiser is gone trading, the latter is gone for a long clip. The storyteller so says that the river-merchant begins his journey at age 16. The reader besides reads that the river-merchant has been gone for five months towards Ku-to-yen and that “ the monkeys make sorrowful noise operating expense ” ( Pound 214, 18 ) . Complex animate beings such as monkeys, elephants, bears, mahimahis, and birds feel emotions ( Tangley ) . Monkeies are similar to worlds and they do experience unhappiness, but they express it through organic structure linguistic communication and non through sorrowful noise. Therefore, this suggests that the storyteller does non hear monkeys. Alternatively, she perchance wants to state that she is sad without stating she is. Reasons for her unhappiness could be that she misses her hubby, that she thinks he will ne’er come back place or that something misfortunate happened to him and he died.
Finally, the last stanza is the storyteller ‘s last chapter in her narrative and it explains her solitariness. The first line is: “ You dragged your pess when you went out ” ( Pound 214, 19 ) . This implies that before go forthing for months, the river-merchant walked reluctantly off from his house as he did non desire to go forth his married woman. Calendar months subsequently, the gate has grown moss so deep that it is impossible to acquire rid of it. There is no manner that mosses can turn deep plenty for one non being able to acquire rid of them because they have weak roots and with their short tallness, they can easy be removed ( Brain 185 ) . Mosss besides grow really easy. Therefore, the deep moss implies that the river-merchant has been gone for old ages. Then, the fall leaves fall earlier than usual because of air current. This suggests that she has stared so much at the wilderness in hopes of descrying her hubby that she has forgotten about clip ; as the air current blows the colourss of life off, she thinks about how alone she is in her darkened universe of separation from her hubby. The storyteller so observes mated butterflies winging in the garden and the latter are doing injury to her: “ They hurt me. I grow older ” ( Pound 214, 25 ) . Butterflies can non do injury to a individual. Therefore, the storyteller is non speaking about physical but psychological injury the butterflies are bring downing on her. As the miss is gazing at them, it is possible that, merely like the butterflies, she wishes to be with her hubby and hold a good clip with him. She grows older, her hubby is still gone and she is lonely. The last four lines say that the storyteller will run into her hubby “ every bit far as Cho-Fu-Sa ” ( Pound 214, 29 ) if of all time he lets her know he is coming back place. This implies that the storyteller is in a demand to see her hubby because she would go 100s of stat mis merely to run into him. Possibly the river-merchant has experienced complications in his work because many old ages have passed in the verse form and he is non back from his journey. Ezra Pound ‘s poem brings the reader through an emotional transition of clip where the storyteller is happy from lines one to seven, cautious from lines eight to ten, happy one time once more from lines eleven to fourteen and the remainder of the verse form expresses her unhappiness. The poem brings the reader through emotions and imagination to eventually state that the storyteller will make whatever it takes to see her hubby once more because she loves him.
