Meg Merrilees Poem
Scottish Song By John Keats
Meg Merrilees is a Poem written by John Keats (1795-1821), one of the greatest English poets and a major figure in the Romantic movement.The poem references Meg Merrilees, a wild-looking, strident Gypsy woman, one of the principal characters in Guy Mannering (or The Astrologer), a novel by Sir Walter Scott, published anonymously in 1815 immediately after completing his last long narrative poem The Lord Of The Isles.
Related Scottish Country Dances
Meg MerrileesMeg Merrilies By John Keats
And liv'd upon the Moors;
Her bed it was the brown heath turf,
And her house was out of doors.
Her apples were swart blackberries,
Her currants pods o'Broom,
Her wine was dew o' the wild white rose,
Her book a churchyard tomb.
Her brothers were the craggy hills,
Her Sisters larchen trees -
Alone with her great family
She liv'd as she did please.
No Breakfast had she many a morn,
No dinner many a noon;
And 'stead of supper she would stare
Full hard against the Moon.
But every Morn, of wood bine fresh
She made her garlanding;
And every night the dark glen Yew
She wove and she would sing.
And with her fingers old and brown
She plaited Mats o' Rushes,
And gave them to the Cottagers
She met among the Bushes.
Old Meg was brave as Margaret Queen
And tall as Amazon:
An old red blanket cloak she wore
A chip hat had she on -
God rest her aged bones somewhere
She died full long agone!
Meg Merrilees Poem Video
Meg Merrilees Poem - Information Video
"Charlotte Saunders Cushman" (1816-1876) As Meg Merrilees, Mathew Brady (1822-1896), Blue Pencil, c. 1855-1865
The Online Scots Dictionary Translate Scots To English.
Published in Old Meg She Was A Gipsy
Dance information licensed under this Creative Commons Licence 3.0.
Text from this original Guy Mannering article on Wikipedia.
Image copyright (cropped) Mathew Brady [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons.