The Merry Maid
Oh, I am grown so free from careSince my heart broke!I set my throat against the air,I laugh at simple folk!
There’s little kind and little fairIs worth its weight in smokeTo me, that’s grown so free from careSince my heart broke!
Lass, if to sleep you would repairAs peaceful as you woke,Best not besiege your lover thereFor just the words he spokeTo me, that’s grown so free from careSince my heart broke!
Words in this poem
- broke v. i.
- To transact business for another. Brome. [See Broker, and cf. Brook.]
- folk n.
- In Anglo-Saxon times, the people of a group of townships or villages; a community; a tribe. [AS. folc; akin to D. volk, OS. & OHG. folk, G. volk, Icel. f, Sw. & Dan. folk, Lith. pulkas crowd, and perh. to E. follow.]
- lass n.
- A youth woman; a girl; a sweetheart. [OE. lasse; prob. of Celtic origin; cf. W. llodes girl, fem. of llawd lad. (Lad a youth.]
- spoke n.
- The radius or ray of a wheel; one of the small bars which are inserted in the hub, or nave, and which serve to support the rim or felly. [OE. spoke, spake, AS, spaca; akin to D. speek, LG. speke, OHG. speihha, G. speiche. sq. root170. Cf. Spike a nail.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Merry Maid is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #59167; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Edna St. Vincent Millay, The Merry Maid, in Poems (1923), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #59167, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/millay-poems/the-merry-maid.html, id L24356.
Form and metre
The Merry Maid is 14 lines in 3 stanzas. The rhyme scheme is ABAB, complete in 2 of its 3 stanzas. The metre is common measure, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 92%).
See other poems in common measure.
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 ABAB careA · brokeB · airA · folkB
- 2 ABAB fairA · smokeB · careA · brokeB
- 3 ABABAB repairA · wokeB · thereA · spokeB · careA · brokeB
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 common measure. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Oh, I am grown so free from care | 8 | ········ |
| Since my heart broke! | 4 | ···· |
| I set my throat against the air, | 8 | ········ |
| I laugh at simple folk! | 6 | ···/˘· |
| There’s little kind and little fair | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Is worth its weight in smoke | 6 | ······ |
| To me, that’s grown so free from care | 8 | ········ |
| Since my heart broke! | 4 | ···· |
| Lass, if to sleep you would repair | 8 | ······˘/ |
| As peaceful as you woke, | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| Best not besiege your lover there | 8 | ··˘/·/˘· |
| For just the words he spoke | 6 | ······ |
| To me, that’s grown so free from care | 8 | ········ |
| Since my heart broke! | 4 | ···· |
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.