Even though prostitution was rampant in the Victorian period, there are only a handful of poems from Rossetti's time about prostitution. That's why "Jenny" kicked up so much controversy when it was first published by Rossetti in Poems (1870).
One poem from this period is Augusta Webster's "A Castaway," which is a dramatic monologue in which a prostitute defends herself and her means of making a living. This poem was revolutionary for its period: unlike even "Jenny," this poem gives a prostitute a voice and humanizes her. The speaker listens to the prostitute's words as she describes how she came into prostitution and how it affords her a better future than what she had before. The poem imagines the prostitute as a woman who can write eloquently (the poem takes the form of a diary entry) and argue her case (she mentions several insults that were thrown at prostitutes at the time and offers rebuttals for them). The speaker of this poem faces many of the same difficulties that Jenny does, including insults and inequality. She remembers, for example, being scorned by a man that she loves because of her prostitution: "Merciless, merciless—like the prudent world / that will not have the flawed soul prank itself / with a hoped second virtue, will not have / the woman fallen once lift up herself . . . / lest she should fall again. Oh how his taunts, / his loathing fierce reproaches, scarred and seared, / like branding iron hissing in a wound!" This is a very important poem from this period that gives women agency when it comes to the profession of prostitution. See the "Related Links" section of this guide for a link to the text.
Another poem from the Victorian period that touches on prostitution is Thomas Hardy's "The Ruined Maid" (1901). Hardy intended this poem to be satirical or light-hearted. The poem is a conversation between two people: the prostitute and a woman who knew her from before she became a prostitute. This poem underlines the irony of appearances when it comes to prostitution (an issue that is also addressed in Stanza 22 of "Jenny" with the pale girl): the fact that even though prostitutes dress richly, they are actually part of one of the lowest classes in society. The prostitute's friend reminds her: "You left us in tatters, without shoes or socks, / Tired of digging potatoes, and spudding up docks; / And now you've gay bracelets and bright feathers three!" The prostitute responds thus: "Yes: that's how we dress when we're ruined."
