The first two lines of the poem introduce us to the a picture of her ex husband: “Thats my ex-husband pictured on the self, smiling as if in love”. We begin to suspect that main character is no longer with her husband, but we are not sure. The poem switches into a ambiguous tone here, same as Robert Browning’s “My Last Duchess”. The line suggest that something is odd, but leaves something out that catches my attention as a reader. We see that the main character is still mentally attached to her ex-husband; she speaks about him smiling as if was in love, suggesting that she didn't believe he really loved her. This line foreshadows what will happen in the poem.
While the main character shows off the picture, she mentions some of the positives about her ex-husband. One positive she mentions is “with his ruddy cheeks, the neat mustache,/ those close-set, piercing eyes, that titled grin.” His physical appearance was one of the reasons she married him. Another she mentions is “ he’d a certain charm, charisma, style,/ That passionate, earnest glance he struck”, the way he acted was also a reason why she married him. She also mentions “He knew all the most romantic spots in town, where waiters, who all knew his face.” His popularity and wealth attracted her to marry him. The main character mentions these positive attributes as she reminisces.
The main character also shows her lack of feeling loved at the beginning of the poem. She says he “Impressed with his officious self. And he flirted- fine! but flirted somehow a bit too ardently, too blatantly.” Here she explains that he was full of himself and cheated on her. The ex-husbanding cheating gives the main character reason