Author Question: Can you identify the two allusions Menashe uses in this poem? What will be an ideal ... (Read 128 times)

silviawilliams41 · **on:** Jul 20, 2018

Can you identify the two allusions Menashe uses in this poem?

What will be an ideal response?

Question 2

What do you make of the last few lines? Are the farmers feelings for hiswife more complicated than they first seem?

What will be an ideal response?

jsm54321 · **Reply #1 on:** Jul 20, 2018

Answer to Question 1

The first line of the poem is a direct quotation from the Lords Prayer (Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven) found in Matthew 6:10. The second allusion is from Ecclesiastes 11:1 Cast thy bread upon the waters: for thou shalt find it after many days. Menashe, who is Jewish, significantly draws from both the Old and New Testamentsstressing the universality of his poem. The use of the obsolete Thy opening the poem announces that the language is borrowed from an older text.

Answer to Question 2

Evident throughout the poem is the strength of the farmers love for little frightened fay. Untutored he may be, but he has not approached her sexually since she ran away. As lines 4041 make clear, he longs for a child. It is also apparent that he longs for his beautiful young wife. Especially after line 30, the expression of his desire for her has an intensity that soars to heartrending lyricism. Mew makes clear that, for the speaker, the physical nearness of his wife in the final stanza is almost unbearable. Note the skill the poet demonstrates in The Farmers Bride, a rimed poem that seems effortless, plain speech.