Analysis of Meg Merrilies

John Keats 1795 (Moorgate) – 1821 (Rome)



OLD Meg she was a gipsy;
      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 church-yard 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 woodbine 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!


Scheme AAXA ABAB AAXA CDED XFXF XAAA XGXGEC
Poetic Form Etheree  (27%)
Metre 111101 010101 01110111 0011111 0100110 01111 011110111 010111 01000101 01011 01101100 111111 110111001 1101001 01110111 110101 11001111 1101 010010111 110111 01010101 1101110 011101 1101010 111111001 01110 11110111 011111 110111 11111
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 986
Words 178
Sentences 9
Stanzas 7
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 6
Lines Amount 30
Letters per line (avg) 24
Words per line (avg) 6
Letters per stanza (avg) 101
Words per stanza (avg) 25
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 10, 2023

54 sec read
210

John Keats

John Keats was an English Romantic poet. more…

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