But he has left us with pity for the woman rather than with admiration of her.
Perhaps the subtlest part of the poem is the impression left on us that the woman knows all her pleading will be in vain, that she has fathomed the weakness of her husband's character.

He will not like to remember that knowledge of hers; and her letting him feel it is a kind of vengeance which will not help him to be faithful.

It is also her worst bitterness, but if her womanhood were perfect, she would not have had that bitterness.
In these two poems, and in others, there is to be detected the deep-seated and quiet half-contempt--contempt which does not damage love, contempt which is half pity--which a woman who loves a man has for his weakness under passion or weariness.

Both the wives in these poems feel that their husbands are inferior to themselves in strength of character and of intellect.

To feel this is common enough in women, but is rarely confessed by them.