Written by English author and poet Thomas Hardy, "A Wife in London" is Hardy's bleak and dreary anti-war poem crafted two months after the start of the bloody Second Boer War (1899 through 1902). Hardy, a Brit, was alarmed with his country's involvement in the war with South Africa. The poem follows the story of a young woman who receives the horrible news that her husband has died in war. However, shortly thereafter, she receives a letter from her husband himself (sent before he died) telling her about future plans and the future in general. Distraught, she examines her life, the life of her husband, and perhaps more importantly, the merits and demerits of war.
Although controversial at release (one notable newspaper, for example, derided Hardy as a "pacifist"), "A Wife in London" is an undeniably good poem. Well-received by people in and outside the poetry community since its release, "A Wife in London" is an exceptionally influential poem for supporters of war -- and even those who do not.
