Meg Merrilies
Meg Merrilies
Original Text
Hood's Magazine (London: H. Penshaw, 1844), as "old Meg." AP H666 MICR mfm
1Old Meg she was a Gipsy,
2 And liv'd upon the Moors:
3Her bed it was the brown heath turf,
4 And her house was out of doors.
5Her apples were swart blackberries,
6 Her currants pods o' broom;
7Her wine was dew of the wild white rose,
8 Her book a churchyard tomb.
9Her Brothers were the craggy hills,
10 Her Sisters larchen trees--
11Alone with her great family
12 She liv'd as she did please.
13No breakfast had she many a morn,
14 No dinner many a noon,
15And 'stead of supper she would stare
16 Full hard against the Moon.
17But every morn of woodbine fresh
18 She made her garlanding,
19And every night the dark glen Yew
20 She wove, and she would sing.
21And with her fingers old and brown
22 She plaited Mats o' Rushes,
23And gave them to the Cottagers
24 She met among the Bushes.
25Old Meg was brave as Margaret Queen
26 And tall as Amazon:
27An old red blanket cloak she wore;
28 A chip hat had she on.
29God rest her aged bones somewhere--
30 She died full long agone!
Publication Start Year
1838
RPO poem Editors
J. R. MacGillivray
RPO Edition
3RP 2.626.
Rhyme
Form