The Bartered Bride the plot [...] is taken from village life and demands a national treatment." According to his biographer John Clapham, Smetana "certainly felt the pulse of the peasantry and knew how to express this in music, yet inevitably he added something of himself." Historian Harold Schonberg argues that "the exoticisms of the Bohemian musical language were not in the Western musical consciousness until Smetana appeared." Smetana's musical language is, on the whole, one of happiness, expressing joy, dancing and festivals. The mood of the entire opera is set by the overture, a concert piece in its own right, which Tyrrell describes
The Farmer's Bride The Farmer's Bride The Farmer's Bride is a collection of poetry by Charlotte Mew. Mew's first collection of poems was published in 1916, in chapbook format, by the Poetry Bookshop. In the USA, it was entitled "Saturday Market" and was not published until 1921. The title poem is a poignant lament by an inarticulate farmer about his love for his young wife and her inability to respond to him either physically or emotionally. Mew wrote this poem during the 19th century and although marriages were not incredibly strict, they were often organized by families according to conveniences and value in