Ruth by William Wordsworth

Ruth is considered as a feminist poem written by William Wordsworth. It is most neglected poem of lyrical ballads written by William Wordsworth and S.T Coleridge.

Ruth is basically a name of a girl. She was child when her Mom got died and she left “half desolate”. Her father got married with a mate and he started ignoring her. She left home and started living in nature. She made nature her companion.

“Grew up to woman’s height”

Above is the most feminist line of this poem, which proves her struggle to become a woman by herself.

Later on a soldier, a native English man, a good English speaker came; his name is not given throughout the poem, she was impressed by his personality. She started loving him. While the solider was in found of a chance to go back to his native land and live as a fisher man or hunter instead of serving others.

But she got married with him and they started living together. Later they decided to go the sea shore for picnic, where her husband (solider) runs away, leaves her alone. Now she is locked for “three seasons”. “Three seasons” is a symbol that means that she is pregnant now and for next nine months she is in tension about her coming child.

Here she blames the man that they destroyed her life even they cut off her relation with nature. Now she has to care her child, which is inside her bailey. At the end narrator tells readers that now after facing a lot of hurdles she is ready to face death. She is ready for all those customs that are used to perform on funeral.

Why this poem was neglected by readers of that time?

Women were not given rights in past even they were not given importance. They were treated as a slave. When William wordsworh wrote that poem, that was the true depiction of women of that society. Readers think, it’s a blunder and they ignored, take it as wastage of time.

What are the important themes of poem?

As this poem is the true depiction of a woman’s character in eighteen centaury. Its themes are related to women. Themes which can easily found in this poem are “theme of loneliness”. Ruth was left half desolate after her mother death and her father started ignoring her, later she left home and started living in jungle. She started living alone. And also when solider leaves her she again left alone.

“Theme of dependent”, a woman should be dependent in taking her decisions.

A woman should be given “importance”. A woman should be given “rights” in society. A woman should have opportunity to make her decisions.

Writing style:

This poem was written in third person narration. Nature imagery is also used in this poem. We can also find different poetic devices in this poem;

Metaphor: “like sound of winds and floods”

Alliteration: “went wandering”

Satire: “beneath her father’s roof, alone she seemed to live”

This poem was written in rhyming scheme.

Significant of title:

The word “Ruth” its self have different meaning. Like “pity” “sorrow” “grief” “calamity” and “companion”. And it’s also relates to one of the story in Old Testament.