The poem comprises six stanzas of four lines each, known as quatrains. The style is a ballad, with jogging rhythm, simple language including dialect, and regular AABB rhyme. The question-and-answer format is typical, telling two sides of a story. The simplicity and mock-innocence are ironic; this is a complex tale of a life ruined, and of society’s judgements. There is a sub-text throughout, that the questioner may be jealous and the ruined maid deluding herself. The reader has to interpret what the true feelings of the speakers might be, and even then it is not certain.

The story should be understood in the context of the Victorian era in which it was written. On one level it is a satire, a criticism of the idea that a woman who had pre-marital sex was ‘ruined’. Hardy had sympathy for the plight of women and the double standard where men were expected to gain sexual experience.

Though the tone can be interpreted as comic, beneath the light-heartedness is a serious message. Prostitution truly did mean ruin. A girl’s reputation, once sullied, could never be retrieved. As she grew older and lost her looks she would earn less. Most serious of all, she would be vulnerable to sexually transmitted infections for which there was no cure and could ultimately kill her.