He’s Gone to England for a Wife
He’s Gone to England for a Wife - meaning Summary
Abandoned for Social Ascent
A woman narrator laments a former lover who has gone to England to marry into status. She recalls his earlier promises and shared poverty, contrasting her genuine devotion and his past vows with the prospective bride’s “empty pride of race.” The poem questions whether wealth and social ambition replace true affection and whether the new marriage will contain any real love comparable to what the speaker offered.
Read Complete AnalysesHe's gone to England for a wife Among the ladies there; And yet I know a lass he deemed The rarest of the rare. He’s gone to England for a wife; And rich and proud is he. But he was poor and toiled for bread When first he courted me. He said I was the best on earth; He said I was his life; And now he thinks of noble birth, And seeks a lady wife! He said for me alone he’d toil To win an honest fame; But now no lass on southern soil Is worthy of his name! I think I see his lady bride, A fair and faultless face, And nothing in her heart beside The empty pride of race. And she will grace his gilded home, The wife his gold shall buy; But will she ever dream of him, Or love as well as I?
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