A Trampwoman's Tragedy

"[2] The poem features a homeless "trampwoman" and her three companions, travelling the open road in rural England.

At the end of the poem, as the trampwoman lies under a tree, the ghost of her lover appears to her, asking whether the child was his or not.

[1] Hardy had enthusiastically offered the poem to the editors of the Cornhill Magazine, writing to them "I send you up a rendering in ballad form of a West Country tragedy of the last century which seems to me to have a lurid picturesqueness suitable for such treatment, and to be sufficiently striking."

[5] The poet David A. Munro, editor of the North American Review, which first published the poem, shared Hardy's enthusiasm for it.

[5] The poem formed the basis of a ballet called The Vagabonds, with choreography by Anthony Burke and music by John Ireland, which was premiered at Sadler's Wells Theatre on October 29, 1946 .