     The Wife of His Youth is a short story written by Charles Chestnut that highlights the difficulties experienced by the mulattos (people of mixed white and black races) during the 1890’s. One of the biggest difficulties experienced by the protagonist, Mr. Ryder, was deciding which race to closer associate with when it came time for him to select a spouse. Because Mr. Ryder was a mulatto, choosing to marry a darker woman would emphasize his darker qualities and choosing a whiter woman would emphasize his whiter features. Charles Chestnut utilizes the use of poetry in The Wife of His Youth as a means to give the reader insight into what Mr. Ryder is attracted to in Mrs. Dixon, as well as using the poetry to instigate Mr. Ryder’s actions with his former wife. This is significant because if it were not for the poetry, Mr. Ryder might not have introduced his latter wife to the Blue Vein Society: choosing to marry Mrs. Dixon instead. 

     Tennyson’s poetry is used in The Wife of His Youth to act as a catalyst regarding Mr. Ryder’s actions.  The poetry extracted from “A Dream of Fair Women” serves as a fundamental launching point as Mr. Ryder brainstorms his proposal to Mrs. Dixon. Tennyson’s description of “a daughter of the gods, divinely tall, and most divinely fair” is undoubtedly an image of pure beauty (4).  This passage suggests that Mr. Ryder’s love is simply superficial and that he sees Mrs. Dixon as a trophy. If Mr. Ryder did not see Mrs. Dixon as a trophy, then he would not be using such physical compliments to a woman he was proposing to. Rather, Mr. Ryder would be commenting on the type of person she is regardless of her physical attributes and use words of endearment that mirror their relationship rather than what it looks like externally. The idea of a superficial love, or loving Mrs. Dixon for what she is rather than who she is, is further enforced by another of Tennyson’s poems “Margaret.” The reader can see that Mr. Ryder is fixated on Mrs. Dixon’s status as a whiter woman because of the poetry used “O sweet pale Margaret, O rare pale Margaret” until he decides that it would not suffice because of her “rather ruddy complexion”  (Tennyson qtd. in Chestnut 4).  Mr. Ryder’s negative justification of these lines of poetry is refuted by yet another superficial detail regarding Mrs. Dixon’s appearance. These lines of poetry convey the notion that Mr. Ryder sees Mrs. Dixon simply by her overall appearance, rather than someone he loves. 

     Furthering this idea, the reader can infer Mr. Ryder’s superficial intentions once more by the way Charles Chestnut included the description of Queen Guinevere in The Wife of His Youth. Instead of focusing on beauty, like the previous poems accomplished, the poetry regarding Queen Guinevere highlights her financial status and the adorning accessories she can afford to buy. The materialistic aspect of Mr. Ryder’s attraction to Mrs. Dixon is evidenced by “buckled with golden clasps before…closed in a golden ring” (4). However, the evidence is not limited to jewelry: “a gown of grass-green silk she wore… a light-green tuft of plumes she bore” not only emphasizes her exquisite clothing, but the double reference to the color green enforces such a “joyous spring” yielding a product that is new and young. The Wife of His Youth specifies that Mr. Ryder “was old enough to have been [Mrs. Dixon’s] father” (2). This has even furthered the stereotype of an older man wanting a very much younger wife as his trophy. By Mr. Ryder choosing to marry Mrs. Dixon, he would be belittling her to that of a trophy wife and sacrifice all the benefits of what a successful marriage could encompass with someone he truly loved. 

     The final piece of poetry that is sprinkled in The Wife of His Youth serves to instigate Mr. Ryder’s actions, affirming what he feels is morally just. The poetry is placed just before Mr. Ryder is posing the question to the Blue Vein Society inquiring if he should introduce his latter wife to his former self or to remain undisclosed behind his pseudonym. The author is not mentioned by Chestnut, however, the poetry reads, “This above all: to thine own self be true, And it must follow, as the night the day, Thou canst not then be false to any man” (9). As Mr. Ryder is reading this poetry aloud, he is reinforcing to himself that he must stay true to himself amidst all the change that has occurred in the past twenty-five years. This means that Mr. Ryder should stick to his roots in the fields with his slave wife, rather than diving into a whole new experience with a young Mrs. Dixon. This poetry also affirms Mr. Ryder’s morals by reminding him not to blatantly lie to a woman who has been persistently searching for him for twenty-five years without a single doubt of their love. It is because of these two lines of poetry that push Mr. Ryder to introduce the wife of his youth to the high-societal Blue Veins, regardless of the fact that she was the darkest person in the room and that she was not from the same social status as they. By choosing his former wife, Mr. Ryder is staying true to his ancestral self rather than slowly becoming on the other side of slavery. 

     In closing, Mr. Ryder’s biggest challenge throughout The Wife of His Youth was choosing his bride. It is because of the last spill of poetry in the short story that pulls Mr. Ryder to introduce the wife of his youth to the prestigious Blue Vein Society. Charles Chestnut is ambiguous as to which woman Mr. Ryder ultimately marries, but one can infer that it is the wife of his youth. This inference can be made because if Mr. Ryder decided to marry Mrs. Dixon, then he could have easily remained undisclosed by his pseudonym and he would not have undergone the introduction of his latter wife to the Blue Veins Society. It is because of the lines of poetry that reminded Mr. Ryder to remain true to himself amidst the higher social status he attained after his days in the slave fields. 
