The Ruined Maid

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of gender discrimination and sexual content.

Stanza 1 sets up the situation and the dialogue that will continue in a similar pattern in all the stanzas. ’Melia’s old friend speaks in the first three lines and ’Melia makes her rejoinder in the last line (except in the last stanza, where ’Melia has two lines rather than one). ’Melia’s line acts as a refrain, since it always repeats the word “ruined.” The name ’Melia is likely an abbreviation of Amelia, reflecting the informal, lower-class diction of the first speaker. 

The first two lines of Stanza 1 convey the surprise the women feel after encountering by chance her old friend or acquaintance in the big city. Line 3 supplies the vital information that the reader must know: ’Melia is dressed in fine clothes and looks as if she must be well-off. Her friend's words make it clear ’Melia has been transformed in some way, as this was not her usual appearance. ’Melia's reply is enigmatic: She uses the term “ruined” (Line 4) to describe herself, but she clearly does not see this as a personal catastrophe or even a disappointment. Instead, she seems to relish it. The word “ruined” was used in Victorian society to refer to a woman who had had sex before marriage; such a woman risked scorn and condemnation. ’Melia, however, has turned the situation to her own advantage, as will soon become apparent. Although she never states it directly, it is obvious that she relies on the support of a wealthy man, or maybe more than one. She has become either a mistress or a courtesan (a sex worker with a wealthy clientele). 

The friend does not respond directly to ’Melia's comment. In fact, she ignores it completely. She is likely puzzled by what her friend means. She goes on in Stanza 2 to give more detail, revealing that ’Melia used to live in the country, on a farm, and her life was less than enviable. She lacked decent clothes to wear and she spent her days digging up potatoes and “spudding up docks” (Line 6), which is rustic dialect for digging up weeds with a spade. In the third line the friend reemphasizes the transformation in Melia’s appearance, and this now has an appropriate context: ’Melia is a country girl who moved to the city and somehow reinvented herself. ’Melia once again makes an ironic remark about her transformation, mentioning her “ruined” status, a condition she clearly enjoys. The satirical slant of the poem is well underway, and will continue in a similar fashion for the remainder of the poem. 

Stanza 3 emphasizes the stark contrast between town and country in terms not of clothes and appearances, as before, but of language. The friend adopts country dialect as she continues to emphasize ’Melia's transformation. “Barton” (Line 9) is a farmyard; “thick oon,” “theäs oon” and “t’other” (Line 10) means “this one,” “that one,” and “the other one,” respectively. Now, though, the way ’Melia speaks shows that she can move easily in high society. As her friend marvels, ’Melia speaks another casual line, acknowledging that she well knows what her friend is talking about; it is no surprise to her, and she is confident in her acquired skill of speaking in a more educated fashion. Thus, so far, clothing and the way a person speaks appear as the defining markers that differentiate between town and country, and also between different classes of people. 

In Stanza 4, the friend remarks further on ’Melia's more refined, softer appearance. Her hands and skin no longer look like she works in the fields from sunrise to sunset, and she is now so refined that she wears dainty little gloves, which are definitely not part of a farm girl’s wardrobe. 

In the next stanza, the friend remarks on a psychological change in ’Melia, saying her demeanor and attitude appear different now. Before, she was always complaining about the hardness of her life; she would “sigh” and “sock” (Line 18)—“sock” is Dorset dialect for sighing loudly—but all that seems to have vanished. ’Melia no longer conveys the impression of “megrims” (sadness) (Line 19) or “melancho-ly” (Line 19). ’Melia acknowledges the truth of her friend's observation, while also carefully continuing her reimagining of what being “ruined” actually means in practice, at least in her own direct experience: “One's pretty lively when ruined” (Line 20), she says. 

In the final stanza, the other woman confesses her envy at ’Melia's newfound superior social status, but ’Melia, instead of acknowledging the implied compliment, makes a final joke about being “ruined”: A “raw country girl” (Line 23) cannot expect to emulate her unless she becomes “ruined” herself. ’Melia’s sophisticated façade does momentarily slip in the final line, however, with her reversion to lower-class dialect, “You ain’t ruined” (Line 24, emphasis added) betraying ’Melia’s humble roots. The poem thus ends on this ironic note, implying that it is only through such “ruin” that social mobility is possible for rural women.