“The Wife Speaks”, Elizabeth Drew Barstow Stoddard. Husband, today could you and I behold The sun that brought us to our bridal morn Rising so splendid in the winter sky (We though fair spring returned), when we were wed; Could the shades vanish from these fifteen years, Which stand like columns guarding the approach To that great temple of the double soul That is as one – would you turn back, my dear, And, for the sake of Love’s mysterious dream, As old as Adam and as sweet as Eve, Take me, as I took you, and once more go Towards that goal which none of us have reached? Contesting battles which but prove a loss, The victor vanquished by the wounded one; Teaching each other sacrifice of self, True immolation to the marriage bond; Learning the joys of birth, the woe of death, Leaving in chaos all the hopes of life— Heart-broken, yet with courage pressing on For fame and fortune, artists needing both? Or, would you rather – I will acquiesce— Since we must choose what is, and are grown gray, Stay in life’s desert, watch our setting sun, Calm as those statues in Egyptian sands, Hand clasping hand, with patience and with peace, Wait for a future which contains no past? Getting married is supposed to be one of the greatest joys in life. The thought of starting a family and growing old together with the person you love the most seems like it would be perfect. But it doesn’t always turn out that way. People grow apart, or begin to resent each other. In Elizabeth Stoddard’s poem “The Wife Speaks”, we see a wife whose marriage is struggling, and how she approaches her husband about it. The poem can be broken down into three sections, each asking a different question. One about the past, one about the present, and one about the future. In Stoddard’s “The Wife Speaks” the speaker’s three questions reveal her thoughts about her dying marriage through the strong language (“vanquished” “immolation”) detail, and the switches in tone from pleading, to an eventual surrender. The first question asks about the past. “Take me, as I took you, and once more go Towards that goal which none of us have reached?” The wife is asking the husband if they were to go back to their wedding day, if he would make the same decision to marry her. The tone of the first question is almost as if the wife is pleading with the husband. Using phrases like “Could the shades vanish from these fifteen years”, and “would you turn back, my dear”, the wife sounds like she is begging the husband to see what she sees. The “great temple of the double soul” illustrates the wife’s belief that her and her husband were never joined as one. The language of this question is very descriptive, and shows that the wife truly cares, and wants the same for her husband. The second question asks about the present. “Contesting battles which but prove a loss”. The wife is tired of fighting, and thinks that it does not do good for either of them, “The victor vanquished by the wounded one”. The question uses negative language to demonstrate the emotional strain that the fighting puts on both of them. “True immolation of the marriage bond”. Using words like “vanquished” and “immolation”, the wife expresses her strong feelings against the fighting. The tone at the end of the question becomes hopeful, “Heart-broken, yet with courage pressing on For fame and fortune, artists needing both?” This shows that the wife believes that her and her husband can overcome their difficulty, and move through life together. The last question refers to the future. The tone becomes surrendered, and the wife seems defeated. “Or, would you rather -I will acquiesce-” is the wife giving up. She’s tried her hardest, and is going to let the husband decide. “Stay in life’s desert, watch our setting sun” is the acceptance that it possibly won’t be fixed, and they have to live with that. “Wait for a future which contains no past?” The language becomes calmer, and resigned. It concludes her thoughts about her marriage as already finished, and maybe they just have to live with that. Overall, the poem is quite sad. The wife truly cares, and is trying to get her husband to care even half as much as she does. Through the tone, language, and detail, the questions that the speaker asks reveals how she thinks her marriage could be fixed, but believes her husband would rather just let it die slowly and watch as it happens.