{"id":5532,"date":"2013-03-28T11:29:00","date_gmt":"2013-03-28T11:29:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeiswhathappens.ca\/?p=5532"},"modified":"2026-01-15T18:30:54","modified_gmt":"2026-01-15T18:30:54","slug":"meg-o-bedlam","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeiswhathappens.ca\/?p=5532","title":{"rendered":"Meg O’ Bedlam"},"content":{"rendered":"

I often think of living the life of a nomad – a little insane maybe. I dream of walking the Camino and I post about a friend who is riding a motorcycle out to BC to see her grandchildren. I am not alone in this desire for freedom. Several people I follow, often post about living on the open road, being free to go wherever, whenever. These people are not unlike the Tom O’ Bedlams in my previous posts. They may not necessarily be “insane,” but they are driven to wander. Ironically they are all female.<\/p>\n

I felt that I needed a poem, about nomadic life, with a woman as the main character. Here is a favourite by John Keats. I think that Meg may be the female equivalent of Tom O’ Bedlam.<\/p>\n

\nMeg Merrilies<\/b><\/span><\/div>\n
\nBY JOHN KEATS<\/a><\/span><\/div>\n
\n
<\/span><\/div>\n
\nOld Meg she was a Gipsy,<\/span><\/div>\n
\n        And liv’d upon the Moors:<\/span><\/div>\n
\nHer bed it was the brown heath turf,<\/span><\/div>\n
\n       And her house was out of doors.<\/span><\/div>\n
\n
\n
\n
\nHer apples were swart blackberries,<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\n       Her currants pods o’ broom;<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\nHer wine was dew of the wild white rose,<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\n       Her book a churchyard tomb.<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
<\/span><\/div>\n
\n
\nHer Brothers were the craggy hills,<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\n       Her Sisters larchen trees\u2014<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\nAlone with her great family<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\n       She liv’d as she did please.<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
<\/span><\/div>\n
\n
\nNo breakfast had she many a morn,<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\n       No dinner many a noon,<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\nAnd ‘stead of supper she would stare<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\n       Full hard against the Moon.<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
<\/span><\/div>\n
\n
\nBut every morn of woodbine fresh<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\n       She made her garlanding,<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\nAnd every night the dark glen Yew<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\n       She wove, and she would sing.<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
<\/span><\/div>\n
\n
\nAnd with her fingers old and brown<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\n       She plaited Mats o’ Rushes,<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\nAnd gave them to the Cottagers<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\n       She met among the Bushes.<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
<\/span><\/div>\n
\n
\nOld Meg was brave as Margaret Queen<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\n       And tall as Amazon:<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\nAn old red blanket cloak she wore;<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\n       A chip hat had she on.<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\nGod rest her aged bones somewhere\u2014<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\n       She died full long agone!<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n<\/a><\/div>\n

“Her Brothers were the craggy hills, Her Sisters larchen Trees –<\/p>\n

Live free – have a great day!!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I often think of living the life of a nomad – a little insane maybe. I dream of walking the Camino and I post about a friend who is riding a motorcycle out to BC to see her grandchildren. I am not alone in this desire for freedom. Several people I follow, often post about […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5533,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5532","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-poetry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeiswhathappens.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5532","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeiswhathappens.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeiswhathappens.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeiswhathappens.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeiswhathappens.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5532"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lifeiswhathappens.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5532\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5534,"href":"https:\/\/lifeiswhathappens.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5532\/revisions\/5534"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeiswhathappens.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5533"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeiswhathappens.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5532"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeiswhathappens.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5532"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeiswhathappens.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5532"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}