Poetry Essay

Erica Spigelmyer
English II
Essay #1 Poetry

I love poetry. I believe that in one of my past lives that I was once a poet. I have written poetry since I was able to pick up a pencil and write. Putting words together as art has always been very dear to me. Though writing an essay can sometimes be a challenge when describing art. Poetry to most people are words that rhyme, but to me they are delicate descriptions of love, emotions and experiences. I pride myself in being able to “read between the lines” and it wasn’t easy to pick a poem, or poems, or even a song to write about. This type of art is something an individual should read for themselves and feel what the creator of the art is trying to convey. Yes these are mere words, but they are words that have been used to help you feel what the writer is feeling, or see in your mind what they want you to see. With that said, I chose a poem that I felt was unique. “The Ruined Maid” by Thomas Hardy is a very creative poem. After doing a little research on him I found that he has been an inspiration to many famous writers. After reading his poem I can see exactly why. “The Ruined Maid” is almost like a short story. He really plays on the different personalities that he uses. From the very first stanza he introduces both characters in his poem. One character is a maid and the other character is the ruined maid. I found this very interesting because you don’t normally, at least I haven’t, see many poems that have a different speaker besides the writer. The first line in the first stanza shows how the young woman (maid) is very surprised to see the other young woman, who is no longer a maid. “O’ Melia, my dear, this does everything crowns!” (“The Ruined Maid” 1) is a great opening for this poem. I love that he shared her surprise and excitement. Seeing this other young woman seems to be the highlight of the maids’ day. She is expressing that now she has seen it all. I also think that not only is she surprised, but she is also amazed at how she looks because in the next two lines she goes on about what she is wearing. In the first stanza you also get a taste of how the young woman, who use to be a maid, feels about her new life. She closes the stanza by telling the other young woman who is the maid by saying: “O didn’t you know I’d been ruined?” said she” (4), which is an interesting way to introduce the second character. My interpretation of the young woman is that she may be coming off a little smug. I think she is trying to convey that she is actually not ruined. I spent a lot of time trying to figure out whether or not the author was trying to use the word “ruined” as a metaphor. The first time I read it, it seemed like something was backwards. I didn’t quite get what kind of message he was trying to get across. When you hear ruined you automatically think that something is broken. Something ruined is something that can never be fixed. The Oxford Dictionary definition says:
Ruin: noun - the physical destruction or disintegration of something or the state of disintegrating or being destroyed
Thus this woman who is no longer a maid and has come into money is surely not ruined, at least not in the literal meaning of the word. The next four stanzas are filled with comparisons from the young maid. She goes back and forth comparing the young woman in a before and after rhythm. Lines 5,6 and 7 really give you an idea of different she is now. Just by reading:
“-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!” – (5-7)
You get an understanding of how different she was when the two woman use to work together.
Her life before she was ruined seems to have been a very hard life. It sounds like it was borderline slave like. In my opinion I wouldn’t have wanted to stay in that lifestyle either. Living a life in tattered clothes and digging in gardens is in no means glamorous as wearing beautiful bracelets and bright feathers. The style that Thomas Hardy uses for writing this poem stands out from a lot of poems I have seen because he writes this poem as dialogue. When you read it you really get a feeling of these two characters talking to each other. With the added dashes and quotations you can see that this is a conversation. I think that this was important for this poem to truly speak to you and convey that these are two woman seeing other for the first time in years. You also forget that it is Thomas Hardy who wrote the poem because this conversation is very convincing. By the third stanza I’m not sure if we are supposed to feel that the young maid may be a little petulant now, because she starts to compare her style of speaking. The young maid goes on about how her pronunciation of words has changed. The young woman is no longer speaking in slang; or she is without the southern twang that she once had. I also feel at this point in the poem you start to notice that it is the young maid doing all the talking. I feel that Thomas Hardy wanted his readers to get a sense of how naïve the maid is. She has spent all her time on a farm, not really knowing what life is like outside of that lifestyle. Now that she has encounter this young woman who use to work with her side by side, she is astonished. I think I might even sense a little jealousy. Lines 13 through 16 you can see how the young lady has truly changed. She has changed from not only have been a maid on a farm, but her physical appearance has changed tremendously. When she says: “Your hands were like paws then, your face blue and bleak” (line 13, 4) you can picture in your mind how hard she use to work. The use of the word bleak shows that this charming young woman that the maid has accidently come across, was a completely different individual then she is now. We know this because in the next three lines she paints a picture of a beautiful young woman standing in front of her. “But now I’m bewitched by your delicate cheek,” (line14,4) This line shows how much the young lady has changed. She went from a dirty and depressed maid, to a beautiful and proper young woman. In the last two stanzas he closes the poem quite efficiently. He has kept the same rhythm throughout each line. As I was reading, I was surprised he was able to keep the poem as short as he did. Tom Hardy could have kept these two girls talk for quite a while. He didn’t go into how the ruined maid left. I guess he was trying to keep it to our imaginations. In my mind I want to think that she ran away and was found by some gentleman who was distinguished and had money. I want to picture her rescued from that terrible life as a maid. The young maid who is speaking in most of the poem seems very surprised to see her, and that is why I am lead to believe that maybe the ruined maid ran away. In the last stanza you can sense the jealousy coming from the young maid. He uses the word wish to offer the feeling of longing, but at the same time he also uses strut which gives a sense of envy. When you think of someone strutting, it gives you a picture in your mind of someone being a showoff. This last part of the poem really closes you with the passion behind these two women. Just reading the closing lines shows how the young maid wants her life:
-”I wish I had feathers, a fine sweeping gown,
And a delicate face, and could strut about town!”-
“My dear-raw country girl, such as you be,
Cannot quite expect that. You ain’t ruined,” said she. (21-24)
At this point I start to think that when she is mentioned as ruined it is some type of attachment word to the life she left. I think that when she was a maid she would threaten to run away or threaten to leave that lifestyle and someone important to her told her that if she did she would be ruined or that would ruin her life. In life I know there are certain phrases and words that can stick with us, and in this particular poem Thomas Hardy does an exceptional job portraying that. Of all the poems I had read this one really caught my attention because of the way it rhymed and the structure he used for conveying his two characters. I was very apparent on who was who in this poem. The two young woman speaking really get their point across.

Works cited
Bain, Carl E., Jerome Beaty, and J. Paul Hunter. "Chapter 8 The Ruined Maid." The Norton Introduction to Literature. New York: Norton, 1973. 496-97. Print.