Richard,
Thanks for your thoughts on this. My husband can take the credit for the title – I always struggle to think of one!
As it’s a sonnet, I don’t think of it so much in terms of being stanza 1 and stanza 2, but more of a resolution to the problem. To drastically simplify the situation, I occasionally get very weepy and emotional (I prefer not to think of myself as ‘depressed’), my husband makes me laugh and I’m OK again.
I agree that “rules the roost” needs to go. It’s a cliché, so I’ll try to think of a better way of ending the poem.
Jim,
I appreciate your comments too. I didn’t realise that “kicking [something or someone] into touch" is a British idiom; it’s putting an end to/getting rid of…, as mentioned in L5, that I wish to do as well.
Yours is a 2nd note for losing “rules the roost” (see my reply to Richard).
Simon,
It’s interesting that you see this as anti-feminist; I’m not saying that all women are hysterical or over-emotional. It’s about me getting down in the dumps (to put it mildly) when certain issues occasionally become too much for me to bear.
Your suggestion for L2 (thank you) has made me change L1 instead. I hope that works. I want to keep L4 though, because there’s a need to be succinct in a sonnet, and I think it’s the right time to divulge that it’s one wife here, not two.
I agonised over ‘rules’ v ‘rule’ in the last line, but as I’m getting rid of the whole phrase I’ll come back to that. Meanwhile, thank you all for your helpful suggestions. Revision coming up.
(While I've been writing this, Bob and Hilary (and now Glenn) have posted. Thank you
both all; I'll come back to you.
)
Jayne