Maureen
O you plant the pain in my heart with your wistful eyes,Girl of my choice, Maureen!Will you drive me mad for the kisses your shy, sweet mouth denies,Maureen?
Like a walking ghost I am, and no words to woo,White rose of the West, Maureen:For it’s pale you are, and the fear that’s on you is over me too,Maureen!
Sure it’s one complaint that’s on us, asthore, this day,Bride of my dreams, Maureen:The smart of the bee that stung us his honey must cure, they say,Maureen!
I’ll coax the light to your eyes, and the rose to your face,Mavourneen, my own Maureen!When I feel the warmth of your breast, and your nest is my arm’s embrace,Maureen!
O where was the King o’ the World that day--only me?My one true love, Maureen!And you the Queen with me there, and your throne in my heart, machree,Maureen!
Words in this poem
- wistful a.
- Longing; wishful; desirous. [For wishful; perhaps influenced by wistly, which is probably corrupted from OE. wisly certainly (from Icel. viss certain, akin to E. wit). See Wish.]
- ghost n.
- The spirit; the soul of man. [OE. gast, gost, soul, spirit, AS. gast breath, spirit, soul; akin to OS. g spirit, soul, D. geest, G. geist, and prob. to E. gaze, ghastly.]
- mavourneen n.
- My darling; -- an Irish term of endearment for a girl or woman.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Maureen is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Oxford Book of English Verse, 1250-1900, Project Gutenberg ebook #66619; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: John Todhunter, Maureen, in Poems (1839–1916), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #66619, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/obev-john-todhunter/maureen.html, id L16254.
Form and metre
Maureen is 20 lines in 5 stanzas of 4 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABAB. 98% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 9.1 syllables.
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 eyesA · maureenB · deniesA · maureenB
- 2 ABAB wooA · maureenB · tooA · maureenB
- 3 ABAB dayA · maureenB · sayA · maureenB
- 4 ABAB faceA · maureenB · embraceA · maureenB
- 5 ABAB meA · maureenB · machreeA · maureenB
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. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| O you plant the pain in my heart with your wistful eyes, | 13 | ··········/˘· |
| Girl of my choice, Maureen! | 6 | ····˘/ |
| Will you drive me mad for the kisses your shy, sweet mouth denies, | 15 | ·······/˘····˘/ |
| Maureen? | 2 | ˘/ |
| Like a walking ghost I am, and no words to woo, | 12 | ··/˘········ |
| White rose of the West, Maureen: | 7 | ·····˘/ |
| For it’s pale you are, and the fear that’s on you is over me too, | 16 | ················ |
| Maureen! | 2 | ˘/ |
| Sure it’s one complaint that’s on us, asthore, this day, | 12 | ···˘/······· |
| Bride of my dreams, Maureen: | 6 | ····˘/ |
| The smart of the bee that stung us his honey must cure, they say, | 15 | ·········/˘···· |
| Maureen! | 2 | ˘/ |
| I’ll coax the light to your eyes, and the rose to your face, | 13 | ············· |
| Mavourneen, my own Maureen! | 7 | ·····˘/ |
| When I feel the warmth of your breast, and your nest is my arm’s embrace, | 16 | ··············˘/ |
| Maureen! | 2 | ˘/ |
| O where was the King o’ the World that day--only me? | 13 | ··········/˘· |
| My one true love, Maureen! | 6 | ····˘/ |
| And you the Queen with me there, and your throne in my heart, machree, | 15 | ··············· |
| Maureen! | 2 | ˘/ |
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.