The poem
December 1899
I
She sits in the tawny vapour That the Thames-side lanes have uprolled, Behind whose webby fold-on-fold Like a waning taper The street-lamp glimmers cold.
A messenger's knock cracks smartly, Flashed news in her hand Of meaning it dazes to understand Though shaped so shortly: He--he has fallen--in the far South Land...
II
'Tis the morrow; the fog hangs thicker, The postman nears and goes: A letter is brought whose lines disclose By the firelight flicker His hand, whom the worm now knows:
Fresh--firm--penned in highest feather-- Page-full of his hoped return, And of home-planned jaunts of brake and burn In the summer weather, And of new love that they would learn.
a wife in london is an aanti war poem and the poet shows his clear hatred of war in a number of ways the use of pathet falousy throughout the poem provides suspense and tension for the reader whereas other sections where the wife leans of their love to be really would have affected the audience in 1901.