To My Dear and Loving Husband

Though the poem is a single stanza, that stanza has a discrete beginning, middle, and end, the narrative pattern corresponding with a three-part thematic structure: Lines 1-4 emphasize the profundity and loving reciprocity in the speaker’s marriage; Lines 5-10 explore the marriage’s pricelessness and transcendent quality; and Lines 11-12 affirm its spiritual necessity and eternal importance. The tone is forthright but complex—at once fervent, jubilant, tender, and intimate.

The speaker opens by reflecting upon the depth and mutuality of the love she and her husband share. The first four lines are exultations, comprising three conditional if-then statements each that convey, in essence, “If ever a love were supreme, then it is ours.” In the first line, she celebrates that “If ever two were one, then surely we”; therefore, their love epitomizes the Biblical injunction that in a marital union, husband and wife “shall be one flesh” (King James Bible, Genesis 2:24; Mark 10:8). The speaker then celebrates the sincerity of her feelings, assuring her husband, “If ever man were loved by wife” (Line 2), then surely he is loved by her. More important, though, are the next two lines, where she describes their love as equally sincere and strong: “If ever wife was happy in a man / Compare with me, ye women, if you can” (Lines 3-4, emphasis added).