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Famous Meg Poems by Famous Poets

These are examples of famous Meg poems written by some of the greatest and most-well-known modern and classical poets. PoetrySoup is a great educational poetry resource of famous meg poems. These examples illustrate what a famous meg poem looks like and its form, scheme, or style (where appropriate).

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by Burns, Robert
...illie,
The manly tar, my mason-billie,
And Auchenbay, I wish him joy,
If he’s a parent, lass or boy,
May he be dad, and Meg the mither,
Just five-and-forty years thegither!
And no forgetting wabster Charlie,
I’m tauld he offers very fairly.
An’ Lord, remember singing Sannock,
Wi’ hale breeks, saxpence, an’ a bannock!
And next, my auld acquaintance, Nancy,
Since she is fitted to her fancy,
An’ her kind stars hae airted till her
gA guid chiel wi’ a pickle siller.
My kin...Read more of this...



by Burns, Robert
...ife thir Carlins fell;
For some had Gentlefolks to please,
 And some wad please themsel’.


Then out spak mim-mou’d Meg o’ Nith,
 And she spak up wi’ pride,
And she wad send the Soger youth,
 Whatever might betide.


For the auld Gudeman o’ London court 4
 She didna care a pin;
But she wad send the Soger youth,
 To greet his eldest son. 5


Then up sprang Bess o’ Annandale,
 And a deadly aith she’s ta’en,
That she wad vote the Border Knight,
 Though she should vot...Read more of this...

by Burns, Robert
...left behind him heroes bright,
Heroes in C&æsarean fight,
 Or Ciceronian pleading.


O for a throat like huge Mons-Meg,
To muster o’er each ardent Whig
 Beneath Drumlanrig’s banners;
Heroes and heroines commix,
All in the field of politics,
 To win immortal honours.


M’Murdo and his lovely spouse,
(Th’ enamour’d laurels kiss her brows!)
 Led on the Loves and Graces:
She won each gaping burgess’ heart,
While he, sub rosa, played his part
 Amang their wives and lasses...Read more of this...

by Burns, Robert
...ellow’d:
That night, a child might understand,
The deil had business on his hand.


 Weel-mounted on his grey mare, Meg,
A better never lifted leg,
Tam skelpit on thro’ dub and mire,
Despising wind, and rain, and fire;
Whiles holding fast his gude blue bonnet,
Whiles crooning o’er some auld Scots sonnet,
Whiles glow’rin round wi’ prudent cares,
Lest bogles catch him unawares;
Kirk-Alloway was drawing nigh,
Where ghaists and houlets nightly cry.


 By this time he was ...Read more of this...

by Burns, Robert
...rt poor Duncan stand abeigh;
 Ha, ha, the wooing o’t.


Duncan fleech’d and Duncan pray’d;
 Ha, ha, the wooing o’t,
Meg was deaf as Ailsa Craig,
 Ha, ha, the wooing o’t:
Duncan sigh’d baith out and in,
Grat his e’en baith blear’t an’ blin’,
Spak o’ lowpin o’er a linn;
 Ha, ha, the wooing o’t.


Time and Chance are but a tide,
 Ha, ha, the wooing o’t,
Slighted love is sair to bide,
 Ha, ha, the wooing o’t:
Shall I like a fool, quoth he,
For a haughty hizzie die?
She ma...Read more of this...



by Burns, Robert
...O KEN ye what Meg o’ the Mill has gotten,
An’ ken ye what Meg o’ the Mill has gotten?
She gotten a coof wi’ a claut o’ siller,
And broken the heart o’ the barley Miller.


The Miller was strappin, the Miller was ruddy;
A heart like a lord, and a hue like a lady;
The laird was a widdifu’, bleerit knurl;
She’s left the gude fellow, and taen the churl.


The Miller h...Read more of this...

by Burns, Robert
...r could buy,
 An’ joys the very best.
There’s a’ the pleasures o’ the heart,
 The lover an’ the frien’;
Ye hae your Meg, your dearest part,
 And I my darling Jean!
 It warms me, it charms me,
 To mention but her name:
 It heats me, it beets me,
 An’ sets me a’ on flame!


O all ye Pow’rs who rule above!
O Thou whose very self art love!
 Thou know’st my words sincere!
The life-blood streaming thro’ my heart,
Or my more dear immortal part,
 Is not more fondly dear!
When hea...Read more of this...

by Burns, Robert
...rdly trust,
 Vile self gets in:
But Thou remembers we are dust,
 Defil’d wi’ sin.


O L—d! yestreen, Thou kens, wi’ Meg—
Thy pardon I sincerely beg,
O! may’t ne’er be a livin plague
 To my dishonour,
An’ I’ll ne’er lift a lawless leg
 Again upon her.


Besides, I farther maun allow,
Wi’ Leezie’s lass, three times I trow—
But L—d, that Friday I was fou,
 When I cam near her;
Or else, Thou kens, Thy servant true
 Wad never steer her.


Maybe Thou lets this fleshly t...Read more of this...

by Burns, Robert
...,
 Or crouchie Merran Humphie—
Till stop! she trotted thro’ them a’;
 And wha was it but grumphie
 Asteer that night!


Meg fain wad to the barn gaen,
 To winn three wechts o’ naething; 12
But for to meet the deil her lane,
 She pat but little faith in:
She gies the herd a pickle nits,
 An’ twa red cheekit apples,
To watch, while for the barn she sets,
 In hopes to see Tam Kipples
 That vera night.


She turns the key wi’ cannie thraw,
 An’owre the threshold ventures;
But...Read more of this...

by Yeats, William Butler
...O bid me mount and sail up there
Amid the cloudy wrack,
For peg and Meg and Paris' love
That had so straight a back,
Are gone away, and some that stay
Have changed their silk for sack.

Were I but there and none to hear
I'd have a peacock cry,
For that is natural to a man
That lives in memory,
Being all alone I'd nurse a stone
And sing it lullaby....Read more of this...

by Scott, Sir Walter
...up, etc. 

He spurred to the foot of the proud Castle rock, 
And with the gay Gordon he gallantly spoke; 
‘Let Mons Meg and her marrows speak twa words or three, 
For the love of the bonnet of Bonny Dundee.’ 
Come fill up my cup, etc. 

The Gordon demands of him which way he goes— 
‘Where’er shall direct me the shade of Montrose!
Your Grace in short space shall hear tidings of me, 
Or that low lies the bonnet of Bonny Dundee. 
Come fill up my cup, etc. 

‘...Read more of this...

by Owen, Wilfred
...wonders why . . .
Someone had said he'd look a god in kilts.

That's why; and maybe, too, to please his Meg,
Aye, that was it, to please the giddy jilts,
He asked to join. He didn't have to beg;
Smiling they wrote his lie; aged nineteen years.
Germans he scarcely thought of; and no fears
Of Fear came yet. He thought of jewelled hilts
For daggers in plaid socks; of smart salutes;
And care of arms; and leave; and pay arrears;
Esprit de corps; and hin...Read more of this...

by Burns, Robert
...Gart poor Duncan stand abeigh;
Ha, ha, the wooing o't.

Duncan fleeched, and Duncan prayed;
Ha, ha, the wooing o't,
Meg was deaf as Ailsa Craig;
Ha, ha, the wooing o't,
Duncan sighed baith out and in,
Grat his een baith bleer't and blin',
Spak o' lowpin ower a linn;
Ha, ha, the wooing o't.

Time and Chance are but a tide,
Ha, ha, the wooing o't,
Slighted love is sair to bide,
Ha, ha, the wooing o't,
Shall I, like a fool, quoth he,
For a haughty hizzie dee?
She may gae...Read more of this...

by Alighieri, Dante
...d my diverted gaze, 
 The handmaids of the Queen of Woeful Days 
 Well knowing, told me, "These the Furies three. 
 Meg?ra leftward: on the right is she 
 Alecto, wailing: and Tisiphone 
 Midmost." 
 These hateful, in their need of prey, 
 Tore their own breasts with bloodied claws, and when 
 They saw me, from the living world of men, 
 Beneath them standing, with one purpose they 
 Cried, and so loudly that I shrank for fear, 
 "Medusa! let her from her place appear...Read more of this...

by Keats, John
...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 churchyard tomb.

Her Brothers were the craggy hills,
 Her Sisters larchen trees--
Alone with her great family
 She...Read more of this...

by Meredith, George
...Here Jack and Tom are paired with Moll and Meg. 
Curved open to the river-reach is seen 
A country merry-making on the green. 
Fair space for signal shakings of the leg. 
That little screwy fiddler from his booth, 
Whence flows one nut-brown stream, commands the joints 
Of all who caper here at various points. 
I have known rustic revels in my youth: 
The May-fly pleasures of a mind a...Read more of this...

by Rossetti, Christina
...;
No fault of mine made me your toast:
Why will you haunt me with a face as wan
As shows an hour-old ghost?

I dare say Meg or Moll would take
Pity upon you, if you'd ask:
And pray don't remain single for my sake
Who can't perform the task.

I have no heart?-Perhaps I have not;
But then you're mad to take offence
That don't give you what I have not got:
Use your common sense.

Let bygones be bygones:
Don't call me false, who owed not to be true:
I'd rather answer "No"...Read more of this...

by Burns, Robert
...bellowed:
That night, a child might understand,
The De'il had business on his hand.

Weel mounted on his grey mare, Meg,
A better never lifted leg,
Tam skelpit on thro' dub and mire,
Despising wind, and rain, and fire;
Whiles holding fast his gude blue bonnet;
Whiles crooning o'er some auld Scots sonnet;
Whiles glow'rin round wi' prudent cares,
Lest bogles catch him unawares;
Kirk-Alloway was drawing nigh,
Whare ghaists and houlets nightly cry.

By this time he was cr...Read more of this...

by Lowell, Amy
...
was a-lopping,
A nine-pounder came and smack went his head,
Pull away, pull away, pull 
away! I say;
Rare news for my Meg of Wapping!"
Every Sunday
People come in crowds
(After church-time, of course)
In curricles, and gigs, and wagons,
And some have brought cold chicken and flagons
Of wine,
And beer in stoppered jugs.
"Dear! Dear! But I tell 'ee 'twill be a fine 
ship.
There's none finer in any of the slips at Chatham."
The third Summer's roses have started in ...Read more of this...

by Tennyson, Alfred Lord
...d glass had wrought, 
Or mastered by the sense of sport, began 
To troll a careless, careless tavern-catch 
Of Moll and Meg, and strange experiences 
Unmeet for ladies. Florian nodded at him, 
I frowning; Psyche flushed and wanned and shook; 
The lilylike Melissa drooped her brows; 
'Forbear,' the Princess cried; 'Forbear, Sir' I; 
And heated through and through with wrath and love, 
I smote him on the breast; he started up; 
There rose a shriek as of a city sacked; 
Meli...Read more of this...

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