Analysing an unseen poem.

Did you notice the direct speech marks to begin? Overlook them? They're crucial: this is a colloquial, heavily dialectical conversation poem.

The Ruined Maid

by Thomas Hardy

Note the immediate sense of surprise in the use of an exclamation mark at the end of the first line.

At the end of the first stanza, we have the first repetition of the pejorative adjective from the title: "ruined". It is left to the reader to speculate during the poem quite what the connotation of "ruined" is, but it has to do with the morals of the maid and her liaison with gentlemen... (!).

Here Hardy begins to juxtapose the drudgery of the previous rural life of the "ruined maid" with the luxury that she now enjoys.

And yet, is there not an irony in the girl's seemingly better life, with all the rich trinkets, if she's had to be "ruined" to acquire them?

The dialect that Hardy is at its strongest here; there is a clear sense of admiration for the "ruined maid" from her former friend.

"O 'Melia, my dear, this does everything crown!

Who could have supposed I should meet you in Town?

And whence such fair garments, such prosperi-ty?"

"O didn't you know I'd been ruined?" said she.

"You left us in tatters, without shoes or socks,

Tired of digging potatoes, and spudding up docks;

And now you've gay bracelets and bright feathers three!"

"Yes: that's how we dress when we're ruined," said she.

-"At home in the barton you said 'thee' and 'thou,'

And 'thik oon,' and 'theäs oon,' and 't'other'; but now

Your talking quite fits 'ee for high compa-ny!"

"Some polish is gained with one's ruin," said she.

"Your hands were like paws then, your face blue and bleak

But now I'm bewitched by your delicate cheek,

And your little gloves fit as on any la-dy!"

"We never do work when we're ruined," said she.

"You used to call home-life a hag-ridden dream,

And you'd sigh, and you'd sock; but at present you seem

To know not of megrims or melancho-ly!"

"True. One's pretty lively when ruined," said she.

"I wish I had feathers, a fine sweeping gown,

And a delicate face, and could strut about Town!"

"My dear a raw country girl, such as you be,

Cannot quite expect that. You ain't ruined," said she.

There is a comment here on the indolence of the rich; Hardy uses litotes to emphasis how idle and easy the life of the former farm labouring girl has become, having been willing to be "ruined".

The rhyme scheme is worthy of note: the often hyphenated last two syllables of the third line reinforce the rather doggerel and chatty form of the poem's AABB stanza rhyme, which suits the colloquial and rustic tone.

Alliteration is the dominant feature of this stanza: the gentle sibilance of "sigh" and "sock" represents the wistfulness of the farm girls longing for more but the mention of "melancholy" represents the sadness of the "ruined maid".

The importance of the emergent world of the town is emphasised by the capitalising of "Town"; it is clearly hugely desirable to the rustic girl interrogating the "ruined maid".

At the very last, Hardy playfully makes the voice of the "ruined maid" lapse back into rural colloquialism, saying "ain't ruined". In doing so, he makes the point anaphorically that being "ruined" is as negative as it suggests, despite all the finery that surrender of virginity has brought the country girl.