Charlotte Mew

Charlotte Mew (1869–1928) was an English poet known for her dramatic monologues and intense lyric poetry exploring themes of alienation, longing, and mental anguish. Her most famous work is the poem "The Farmer's Bride" and the collection of the same name. Biography ↓More ↓

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Charlotte Mew

On the Asylum Road

Theirs is the house whose windows — every pane — Are made of darkly stained or clouded glass : Sometimes you come upon them in the lane, The saddest crowd that you will ever pass. But still we merry town or village folk Throw to their scattered stare a kindly grin, And think no shame to stop and crack a joke With the incarnate wages of man's sin. None but ourselves in our long gallery we meet, The moor-hen stepping from her reeds with dainty feet, The hare-bell bowing on his stem, Dance not with us ; their pulses beat To fainter music ; nor do we to them Make their life sweet. The gayest crowd that they will ever pass Are we to brother-shadows in the lane :

Charlotte Mew

The Pedlar

Lend me, a little while, the key That locks your heavy heart, and I'll give you back — Rarer than books and ribbons and beads bright to see, This little Key of Dreams out of my pack. The road, the road, beyond men's bolted doors, There shall I walk and you go free of me, For yours lies North across the moors, And mine South. To what sea ? How if we stopped and let our solemn selves go by, While my gay ghost caught and kissed yours, as ghosts don't do, And by the wayside this forgotten you and I Sat, and were twenty-two ? Give me the key that locks your tired eyes, And I will lend you this one from my pack, Brighter than coloured beads and painted books that make men wise Take it. No, give it back !

The Road to Kérity

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The Road to Kérity

Do you remember the two old people we passed on the road to Kérity, Resting their sack on the stones, by the drenched wayside, Looking at us with their lightless eyes through the driving rain, and then out again To the rocks, and the long white line of the tide: Frozen ghosts that were children once, husband and wife, father, and mother, Looking at us with those frozen eyes; have you ever seen anything quite so chilled or so old? But we--with our arms about each other, We did not feel the cold!

Biography

Charlotte Mew was an English poet born in 1869 and died in 1928. She wrote poetry that combined lyrical intensity with dramatic monologue, often giving voice to outcasts, the mentally ill, and those trapped by desire or grief. Her work is noted for its spare, colloquial language and its unflinching focus on psychological distress, loss, and the supernatural. Mew's most famous poem, "The Farmer's Bride," appears in her first collection, published in 1916 under the same title and expanded in later editions. Her poetry received recognition from writers such as Thomas Hardy and Virginia Woolf. Despite a relatively small body of work, she holds a significant place in early twentieth-century English poetry.

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