- maresnounChapter 1 →
Adult female horses kept on a farm. The word here emphasizes the bride's comfort with animals as opposed to her terror of people.
“Our mares she knew, / The farm dogs, cows, and every beast of the stall”
- beast of the stallphraseChapter 1 →
A farm animal kept in a stable or barn stall, such as a horse or cow. The phrase groups all the domestic livestock the bride feels safe around.
“every beast of the stall”
- runnedverbChapter 1 →
A non-standard, dialect past tense of 'ran,' used here to capture the farmer's rural, uneducated speech pattern.
“She runned away.”
- myriadadjectiveChapter 1 →
An extremely large, uncountable number of things. Here it suggests the vast, open world of nature from which the bride was forcibly retrieved.
“Out of a myriad lovely things and tall”
- leveretnounChapter 1 →
A young hare in its first year of life, known for being timid and swift. The word is used to compare the bride to a small, frightened wild creature.
- faynounChapter 1 →
An archaic or poetic word for a fairy or supernatural sprite. It is used to describe the bride as otherworldly, delicate, and not quite belonging to the human world.
- parsonnounChapter 1 →
A local Church of England clergyman or parish priest. His joining the chase shows how the whole community, including the church, participated in recapturing the bride.
- atticnounChapter 1 →
The small, often cramped room or space directly under the roof of a house. Here it is the isolated place where the bride sleeps alone, cut off from the rest of the household.
- downnounChapter 1 →
The fine, soft, short hair or fluff on a young person's skin. The farmer uses it to describe the delicate softness of the bride's appearance, conveying both tenderness and possessive longing.
“Oh! my God! the down, / The soft young down of her, the brown”
The Farmer's BrideShort story by Charlotte Mew