Keats
Old Meg
Old Meg she was a Gipsey,
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 of the wild white rose,
Her book a churchyard tomb.
Her Brothers were the craggy hills,
Her Sisters larchen trees; 10
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 woodbine fresh
She made her garlanding,
And, every night, the dark glen Yew
She wove, and she would sing. 20
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! 30
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Written on 3 July 1818, between Dalbeattie and Auchencairn in the Lowlands of Scotland.
Keat's companion, Charles Brown, described to him the character of Meg Merrilies from Walter Scott's Guy Mannering, which Keats had not read. After a picnic "in Meg Merrilies county" Keats wrote the poem in a letter to his sister Fanny.
l. 25. - "Margaret Queen" - Queen Margaret, wife of Henry VI, in one of Keats's favourite Shakespeare plays, Richard III.
l. 28. - "a chip hat" - A hat made of wood fibre.
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