Brief Background

The poet that I chose to research was Thomas Hardy. Hardy was born in 1840 in England and raised in a relatively low-class Victorian setting. He was apprenticed to an architect when he was young and made architecture his course of study while Attending The King's College in London. While there he won several awards for architecture and pursued and early young architectural career. In 1874 he instead decided to leave London, which he harbored a disdain for, and pursue a literary career. He wrote several novels including: Far From the Madding Crowd, The Native, and The Woodlanders. Despite success with his novels and a gained celebrity status, Hardy then chose to pursue his "first love", poetry. His first poetic volume Wessex Poems contained poems from the previous 30 years was published in 1898. Afterwards, he publishes poems sporadically. In 1912, his first wife, Emma Lavinia Gifford passed away which was an extremely traumatic event for Hardy. One of his biographers, Claire Tomalin, notes that after Emma's death , Hardy became a "truly great" English poet and his poems achieved a new depth and sense of sorrow. Hardy eventually remarried and died in 1928 at the age of 88. He has achieved great post mortem fame and is now recognized as one of the most masterful English poets. He is a noted Naturalist and Romanticist, elements which are extremely prominent in his poetry and life.

Thursday, January 5, 2012

The Ruined Maid

"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.
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1 comment:

  1. Connor DrooffJanuary 6, 2012 at 1:41 PM

    Again, in this poem quatrain is used with an AABB rhyme scheme. Repetition is used by the maid to emphasize how she feels "ruined" by city life. There are also the factors of imagery and word choice that take an effect on the stanza development. Each begins with nice, sweet-sounding words followed by more harsh words denoting how the maid currently feels about herself

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