Meg Merrilies (Rutland Boughton)
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- (Posted 2023-09-27) CPDL #75757:
- Editor: David Anderson (submitted 2023-09-27). Score information: Letter, 12 pages, 1.02 MB Copyright: Personal
- Edition notes: Notes regarding the poem included in the edition.
General Information
Title: Meg Merrilies
Composer: Rutland Boughton
Lyricist: John Keats
Number of voices: 4vv Voicing: SATB
Genre: Secular, Partsong
Language: English
Instruments: A cappella
First published: 1908 Novello and Co.
Description: Inclusion of notes regarding the poem noted in edition comments.
External websites:
Original text and translations
English text
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 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!