The Dark Maid of the Valley
Oh, have you seen or have you heard, my treasure of bright faces,Some dark glen roving, while in gloom I pine here day and night?Far from her voice, far from her eyes, my cloud of woe increases--My blessing on that glen and her, for aye and aye alight.
'Tis many's the time they've put in print, to beauty doing homage,Her figure tall, her eyebrows small, her thin-lipped mouth of truth,Her snowy hands, as fair and fine as silk on wild bird's plumage--My bitter sigh to think that I am here, a lonely youth!
One little glance, once at her face, a flame lit in my bosom,Oh, snowy-hearted, white-toothed one, whose ringlets are of gold,More dear art thou than Deirdre, leaving lovers mourning woesome,Or Blanaid, meshing thousands with her winning eyes of old!
Oh, bloom of women! spurn me not for this rich suitor hoary--This boorish, noisy, songless man, who comes between us twain;It's I would sweetly sing beneath the harvest moon's gold glory,For thee full many a Fenian lay and bold Milesian strain!
Words in this poem
- snowy a.
- White like snow.
- woesome a.
- Woeful. Langhorne.
- spurn v. t.
- To drive back or away, as with the foot; to kick. [OE. spurnen to kick against, to stumble over, AS. spurnan to kick, offend; akin to spura spur, OS. & OHG. spurnan to kick, Icel. spyrna, L. spernere to despise,]
- suitor n.
- One who sues, petitions, or entreats; a petitioner; an applicant.
- hoary a.
- White or whitish."The hoary willows."
- boorish a.
- Like a boor; clownish; uncultured; unmannerly.
- songless a.
- Destitute of the power of song; without song; as, songless birds; songless woods.
- twain a.
- Two;- nearly obsolete in common discourse, but used in poetry and burlesque. [OE. twein, tweien, tweyne, AS. twegen, masc. See Two.]
- fenian n.
- A member of a secret organization, consisting mainly of Irishment, having for its aim the overthrow of English rule in ireland. [From the Finians or Fenii, the old militia of Ireland, who were so called from Fin or Finn, Fionn, or Fingal, a popular hero of Irish traditional history.]
- milesian a.
- Of or pertaining to Miletus, a city of Asia Minor, or to its inhabitants.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Dark Maid of the Valley is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Poem-Book of the Gael Translations from Irish Gaelic Poetry into English Prose and Verse, Project Gutenberg ebook #46917; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Eleanor Hull, The Dark Maid of the Valley, in The Poem-Book of the Gael (1912), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #46917, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/hull-gael/the-dark-maid-of-the-valley.html, id L11775.
Form and metre
The Dark Maid of the Valley is 16 lines in 4 stanzas of 4 lines each. The metre is iambic heptameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 90%). 97% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 14.5 syllables. 8 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending.
See other poems in iambic heptameter.
Measured by Laurel's pipeline, not copied from a handbook: how stress and metre are counted, how rhyme is lettered, how a drifted rhyme is found. Where the dictionary cannot confirm a rhyme the letter is withheld, not guessed.
Rhyme words, stanza by stanza
The word that ends each line, lettered by the rhyme it makes; a dash is a line whose rhyme the dictionary could not confirm.
- 1 -A-A faces · nightA · increases · alightA
- 2 -A-A homage · truthA · plumage · youthA
- 3 -A-A bosom · goldA · woesome · oldA
- 4 ABAB hoaryA · twainB · gloryA · strainB
Scansion, line by line
Each line with its syllable count and the stresses the words themselves fix: / stressed, ˘ unstressed, · a syllable the word leaves free and the metre decides. Read against iambic heptameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Oh, have you seen or have you heard, my treasure of bright faces, | 15 | ·········/˘··/˘ |
| Some dark glen roving, while in gloom I pine here day and night? | 14 | ···/˘········· |
| Far from her voice, far from her eyes, my cloud of woe increases-- | 15 | ············˘/˘ |
| My blessing on that glen and her, for aye and aye alight. | 14 | ·/˘·········˘/ |
| 'Tis many's the time they've put in print, to beauty doing homage, | 15 | ·/˘·······/˘//˘ |
| Her figure tall, her eyebrows small, her thin-lipped mouth of truth, | 14 | ·/˘··/········ |
| Her snowy hands, as fair and fine as silk on wild bird's plumage-- | 15 | ·/˘··········/˘ |
| My bitter sigh to think that I am here, a lonely youth! | 14 | ·/˘········/˘· |
| One little glance, once at her face, a flame lit in my bosom, | 15 | ·/˘··········/˘ |
| Oh, snowy-hearted, white-toothed one, whose ringlets are of gold, | 14 | ·/˘/˘········· |
| More dear art thou than Deirdre, leaving lovers mourning woesome, | 15 | ·····/˘/˘/˘/˘/˘ |
| Or Blanaid, meshing thousands with her winning eyes of old! | 14 | ···/˘/˘··/˘··· |
| Oh, bloom of women! spurn me not for this rich suitor hoary-- | 15 | ···/˘······/˘/˘ |
| This boorish, noisy, songless man, who comes between us twain; | 14 | ·/˘/˘/˘······· |
| It's I would sweetly sing beneath the harvest moon's gold glory, | 15 | ···/˘····/˘··/˘ |
| For thee full many a Fenian lay and bold Milesian strain! | 14 | ···/·/˘···˘/˘· |
The reader shows the same poem with its rhymes coloured and a stress row above each line, the notes beside their stanzas, and any word's definition on a tap; the analysis page takes the whole book apart. How every part of this site was made.