MB UNIUD

The poem is a typical tradition ballad and reading from the title the reader understand the word wife means that the protagonist is a woman and she is married.and the poet consider the woman social status.the ballad consists of 12 4 line stanzas arrange into a narrative form and into a dialogue form.

The rhyme scheme is abcb. according to the typical conventions of a ballad it starts with the climatic episode(wich is a tragical episode) the death of the protagonist's son.

The poem start with narrator's voice: he/she tells there was a wife at usher's well and she is wealty and she had 3 son. She sent them over the sea.in the first stanza there are the alliteration of the w that speed up the reading of the line.the function of the second stanza is to inform the reader of the death of the three son.

From the phonological level in the second line there is the alliteration of the sound "w" that speeds up the reading ("wealthy", "wife" and "was"). in the third line there is the alliteration of the sound "s" ("stout", "stalward", "sons") that also contributes to speed up the reading.

The forth stanza explain the desire of the wife. With the words flesh and blood the narrator wants to explain the different of earthly world and the spiritual word. the mother says, :"come hame to me in earthly flesh and flood".

In the Middle Ages was important to save soul, but in this line here is the physical desire of the mother who wants to see her sons alive.

In the fifth stanza the composer informs the reader about the time when the episode happened; it was November.

the mother is tied with her son and the reader can understand mother's pain ,she has just know about the death od her son and she is despair. She would see their alive.in the 5^{th  stanza the narrator tells that her son came back home with hats of birk. It is a metaphor. The bik means the tomb of the three son.}

^{in the sixth stanza the narrator toolk about the birk .it is a periphrasis of the son. 7 there are a dialogue .}

^{THe mother imagines that her son are with her and she prepare all the necessary to receive her son. The pain is so intense that she has hallucination.gallo in the last  stanza the sons leave her mother and they say goodbye their mother, their barn and byre, two elements important in their life.}

 ^{The secon part of the ballad recall the resurrection of Christ .}

^{In the Middle Ages the faith and religion are very important in the life of people.}