Maud Baily Poem by Francis Duggan

Maud Baily know the tougher side of life
She was born poor and became a waster's wife
And like most of those that bear the poor soul's curse
As years advance her lot in life grow worse.

Her father's bones lay in the paupers plot
His grave unmarked, his name by most forgot,
His daughter Maud clearly remembers yet
That she felt no great sorrow at his death.

Dave Grady's passing caused no tears to flow
And brought to Maud no sleepless nights of woe
Her memories of him bring her mind sour taste
And a tear for him she feels would be a waste.

It was oft he beat her just to watch her cry
To watch the tears come rolling from each eye
It seemed mind ease he only could attain
By inflicting on his wife and daughter pain.

He'd come home from the Public house at night
Full of booze and boiling for a fight
And found it pleasurable and amusing
To give his wife an unprovoked abusing.

To make up for her worthles husband Dave
Mrs Grady had to labour like a slave
He had become the pub frequenting sort
And gave to her no financial support.

She had to work for wages that were small
She swept the church and community hall
And for various rich folk in the town she toiled
For to feed and clothe herself and Maud her child.

She was all things a mother ought to be
Full of kindness and gentility,
Had no time for self pity or moan
And worked to raise young Maud and keep the home.

Maud Baily still remembers with regret
The tragic day of her poor mother's death
Her life ended as she walked across the street Uptown
When a passing lorry struck and knocked her down.

She was thirty nine years when her life came to an end
And her daughter Maud had lost her dearest friend
At that time Maud was only just fifteen
And her tougher days in life had not yet seen.

Death life's most feared and only fatal foe
Had dealt young Maud a cruel and severe blow
It had taken from her a mother good and kind
And left her with a grief tormemted mind.

To live the body must be clad and fed
And from then on Maud had to earn her own bread
She took a job as barmaid in the Snooker's Club
A shabby looking low class side street pub.

In this bar frequented by the town's depraved
For puny wages young Maud Grady slaved
She worked six days a week twelve hours a day
For bed and board and two pounds weekly pay.

It was here she met the man she was to wed
Three years older than herself and country bred
Jimmy Baily was the young man's name
And after six months courtship his wife she became.

Like her father he liked the bar room atmosphere
And he had a taste for strong liquor and beer
But her love for him than her discretion proved more strong
And 'twas too late when she found out she was wrong.

He promised her he'd change his way of life
From the day that she'd agree to be his wife
And to keep the promise he tried his very best
But his weak mind failed him at the first real test.

For the first ten months their marriage seemed worth while
And on them both true happiness did smile
To the promise he made to her he held dear
And from all public houses kept well clear.

For Maud those were very happy days
Her husband had overcome his drinking craze
In her womb she carried his baby
And she thought sad days she never more would see.

Sadly she remembers the sad morn
That their baby girl arrived still born
On her mind it left a sorrowed scar
And drove her weak husband back to the bar.

From then on nothing for her did go right
Her husband came home drunk to her each night
Her brief happiness had turned to days of gloom
And their marriage it was on it's way to doom.

But the worst news to reach Maud Baily's ears
Is a news no married woman likes to hear,
She was told her husband was having a lewd affair
That his sexual needs he was satisfying elsewhere.

He forsook Maud his lawful wedded spouse
And went to live in his new woman's house
And Maud of food and money destitute
For open hire her flesh did prostitute.

For the past three years Maud Baily's lived in sin
She sells herself to depraved sex starved men
She lives a life of immorality
An outcast of human society.

It was circumstance that caused her live this way
And lewdly prostitute her flesh for pay
To come by money she became impure
And now street walks like every common whore.