Proud Maisie
Proud Maisie - context Summary
From Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border
Collected in Sir Walter Scott’s Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border, "Proud Maisie" is a brief traditional ballad presented as a dialogue between a young woman and a bird. It sets up a courtship question only to answer with grim irony: the bride is carried to church by men but laid by the sexton in a grave. The poem juxtaposes youthful pride and the inevitability of death in a terse, narrative voice.
Read Complete AnalysesProud Maisie is in the wood, Walking so early; Sweet Robin sits on the bush, Singing so rarely. "Tell me, thou bonny bird, When shall I marry me?"— "When six braw gentlemen Kirkward shall carry ye." "Who makes the bridal bed, Birdie, say truly?"— "The gray-headed sexton That delves the grave duly. "The glowworm o'er grave and stone Shall light thee steady; The owl from the steeple sing, 'Welcome, proud lady.'"
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