Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE MILLER'S DAUGHTER, by JOHN CROWE RANSOM


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE MILLER'S DAUGHTER, by                 Poet's Biography
First Line: I have seen, o, the miller's daughter
Last Line: A mose rare miller's daughter.
Subject(s): Daughters; Mills And Millers


I have seen, O, the miller's daughter
And on her neck a coral necklace lies
And yellow glint of corn is in her eyes
Which are a blue stillwater.

The strange miller hath strange daughter
For he is pink and painfully doth walk
And life demandeth of them little talk
Beside the small millwater.

At candlelight I hear she goes
And on a bed of snow like snow she lies
Yet warmer much and lids her sleepy eyes.
Long lies the tall white tower which uprose.

At daylight some vague bird
Tinkles his little bell and she comes down
Coiling her hair as queens would coil a crown.
Yet queens are too absurd,

And so am I, poor bookish hind,
Who come by fabulous roads around the hill
To bring the famous daughter of the mill
No combs to sell, no corn to grind,

But too much pudding in my head
Of learned characters and scraps of love
Which O that she might peck at (dainty dove!)
And words vain to be said.

What then to do but stare --
A learned eye of our most Christian nation
And foremost philosophical generation --
At primary chrome of hair,

Astronomied Oes of eyes
And the white moons I tremble to behold
(More than my books did shake me, or a tale told)
And all her parts likewise.

She dwells beside a water
And counts the bins and ties the sacks pardee
And cleaves my closet thought, and is to me
A mose rare miller's daughter.





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