The Widow in the Bye Street

"The Widow in the Bye Street" by John Masefield is a poem set in the early 1900s that tells the story of a struggling widow in a small town trying to take care of her son, Jimmy, exploring ideas of love, giving everything for someone else, and social difficulties. After the death of her husband, the widow works really hard to support her son but always worries about him falling for the wrong woman, mainly Anna, a beautiful widow with a bad reputation; as he gets older, young Jimmy falls for Anna, not knowing she is using him, which foreshadows a tragic outcome because of love, goals, and being betrayed.