     “The Wife of His Youth” is a short story written by Charles Chestnut that highlights the difficulties experienced by mulattos- people of mixed white and black races- during the 1890’s. One of the biggest difficulties experienced by Mr. Ryder, the protagonist of the story, was deciding which race to associate closer 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 and mannerisms. Poetry was Mr. Ryder’s passion in life and Chestnutt used poetry in “The Wife of His Youth” to give the reader insight into Mr. Ryder’s life and his passions for Mrs. Dixon. Poetry is significant in this piece because it reminds Mr. Ryder of his morals, which ultimately led him to introduce the wife of his youth to the Blue Veins. 

     The use of Tennyson in “The Wife of His Youth” served to show the reader that Mr. Ryder was passionate about Mrs. Dixon’s status as a beautiful, whiter woman. Tennyson’s “A Dream of Fair Women” is the launching point for Mr. Ryder’s proposal to Mrs. Dixon. Tennyson’s description of “a daughter of the gods, divinely tall, and most divinely fair” is an image of pure beauty, and that is what Mr. Ryder was most passionate about in Mrs. Dixon (4). This quote suggests that Mr. Ryder’s love for Mrs. Dixon is only superficial and he sees their future as a societal gain for him. If Mr. Ryder did not see Mrs. Dixon as a trophy, then he would not be using such external compliments to a woman he supposedly loved and was about to propose to. 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 than he 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 justifies against using these lines of poetry because of another superficial detail regarding Mrs. Dixon’s appearance. If Mr. Ryder actually loved Mrs. Dixon and saw her as more than just a societal gain for him, then he would have found poetry that expresses the nature of her character and what he loves most about her. Tennyson’s poetry is used to show that Mr. Ryder is passionate about Mrs. Dixon’s external appearance and societal status as a whiter woman. 

     Mr. Ryder’s superficial love for Mrs. Dixon is witnessed once again through the poetry describing Queen Guinevere emphasizing her money. Instead of focusing on beauty, like Tennyson’s accomplished, the poetry regarding Queen Guinevere highlights her financial status because of her expensive adorning accessories. Mr. Ryder’s financial passion for Mrs. Dixon is shown because he chose the poetry with “buckled…golden clasps …closed in a golden ring” (4). Mr. Ryder is reading poetry about Queen Guinevere’s money because it placed Guinevere into a higher social status than the common people- similar to how Mrs. Dixon had a higher social status because she was whiter than other members of the Blue Veins. However, the poetry Mr. Ryder chose to read is not limited to jewelry: Guinevere’s “gown of grass-green silk” and the “light-green tuft of plumes she bore” not only emphasize her exquisite clothing, but the repetitive reference to the color green emphasizes a “joyous spring” (4). The clothes Guinevere wore deepen the idea that Mr. Ryder is attracted to Mrs. Dixon’s money; the three references to color green are significant because green represents new life, and Mrs. Dixon is significantly younger than Mr. Ryder. Chestnutt specifies that Mr. Ryder “was old enough to have been [Mrs. Dixon’s] father” (2). Because of this age difference, the stereotype of an older man wanting a very much younger wife as his trophy is heightened. If Mr. Ryder had married Mrs. Dixon, he would have disregarded her as a person and used their marriage as societal gains for him by marrying a young, whiter woman with a lot of money.

     A final piece of poetry sprinkled in “The Wife of His Youth” instigates Mr. Ryder’s to reveal himself to the wife of his youth because he is passionate about staying true to himself. The poetry that induces these thoughts is placed just before Mr. Ryder is posing the question to the Blue Vein Society inquiring if he should introduce the wife of his youth to himself, or if he should remain concealed behind a new life and pseudonym. 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 word and marriage to the wife of his youth, rather than diving into a potentially toxic marriage with Mrs. Dixon. It is because of these 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 not of the same social status as they were. By choosing his former wife, Mr. Ryder is staying true to himself, rather than trying to advance his social status with a new woman.

     In closing, Mr. Ryder’s biggest challenge throughout “The Wife of His Youth” was choosing his bride. If he were to marry Mrs. Dixon, he could have achieved a much higher social status through being dishonest to the wife of his youth. The last sprinkle of poetry in this short story pull Mr. Ryder to be honest with the wife of his youth and introduce her 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, than Mr. Ryder would have remained undisclosed to the wife of his youth by Mr. Ryder’s pseudonym. It is because of the last lines of poetry that reminded Mr. Ryder to remain true to himself amidst the higher social status he achieved after his days in the slave fields. 
