The poem ‘The Farmer’ Wife’ is structured like a dramatic; monologue In which the woman addresses her husband, as though he was sitting right in front of her. In veiled anger and a mocking tone, she tells him that it was a virtue that he had without being forced to suffer the humiliation of standing before his creditors with a bent head and a hand stretched out or selling his crops. But she is a sinner and hence having been born as a woman, with a bent head and a hand outstretched, had to sell her self-esteem all through her life. She asks him why he had left her to suffer despite knowing her status in society. She accuses him of intentionally committing *****, despite being aware of her predicament as a ‘widow’. She castigates him for consuming poison and poisoning her existence.
Using the cotton crop as an analogy, she tries to convey the idea that the ‘cotton crop’ has a limited life and once it is sold, or it perishes owing to vagaries of weather, we forget it once and for all. But, her family has to continue to take out a living, generation after generation.
She questions the popular idea of ‘manhood’ as propagated by society. She recalls how she had struggled hard to keep his family alive, despite being kicked and verbally abused by him, in a ** mood. She tells him sarcastically, that she had suffered such cruel treatment, only because she had firmly believed that he would act like a real ‘man’ and would take care of her family. She mocks him for dying like a coward and giving her a . She accuses him of being selfish, self-centred and irresponsible. She admits that it was true that the crop he had hoped to raise had perished and hence his debts had remained unpaid. Consequently, they were looked down upon and were forced to cry in humiliation.
At this juncture, he had only thought of ‘his crop’ and ‘his dignity’ and hence had taken recourse to **. But, by doing so, he had proved that he was utterly selfish, and Irresponsible husband and father. He should also have thought of his duty and responsibility, as a husband and to his four **, which she had borne and harvested from her womb. She asks a rhetorical question ‘Can I leave them to the wind like worm-eaten cotton pods?’ She Intends to say that ‘crops’ can be left to perish and not her ***.
She expresses her contempt saying that he had like a coward most irresponsibly without bothering about his kids. In the last part, she expresses her stance as a ‘mother’. She declares that she would stay alive not merely to take care of her **** but also to show to her **** how to embrace life and to struggle for life with a clenched fist.
