Mapping Keats’s Progress: A Critical Chronology

Mapping Keats’s Progress
A Critical Chronology

References to this poem

Ah! ken ye what I met the day

  • Ah! ken ye what I met the day
  • Out owre the mountains,
  • A coming down by craggis grey
  • An’ mossie fountains?
  • Ah goud hair’d Marie, yeve I pray
  • Ane minute’s guessing —
  • For that I met upon the way
  • Is past expressing.
  • As I stood where a rocky brig
  • A torrent crosses,
  • I spied upon a misty rig
  • A troup o’ horses —
  • And as they trotted down the glen
  • I sped to meet them,
  • To see if I might know the men,
  • To stop and greet them.
  • First Willie on his sleek mare came
  • At canting gallop
  • His long hair rustled like a flame
  • On board a shallop.
  • Then came his brother Rab and then
  • Young Peggy’s mither,
  • And Peggy too — adown the glen
  • They went togither.
  • I saw her wrappit in her hood
  • Fra wind and raining —
  • Her cheek was flush wi’ timid blood
  • ’Twixt growth and waning.
  • She turn’d her dazed head full oft,
  • For thence her brithers
  • Came riding with her bridegroom soft
  • An’ mony ithers.
  • Young Tam came up an’ eyed me quick
  • With reddened cheek —
  • Braw Tam was daffed like a chick,
  • He coud na speak.
  • Ah Marie, they are all gane hame
  • Through blustring weather,
  • An’ every heart is full on flame
  • An’ light as feather.
  • Ah! Marie, they are all gone hame
  • Fra happy wedding,
  • Whilst I — Ah is it not a shame?
  • Sad tears am shedding.

× Cite this page:

MLA Style: Works Cited

Keats, John. “Ah! ken ye what I met the day.” Mapping Keats’s Progress: A Critical Chronology, by G. Kim Blank. Edition 3.26 , University of Victoria, 12 July 2023. https://johnkeats.uvic.ca/poem_ah_ken_ye_what_i_met.html.

Chicago Style: Note

John Keats, “Ah! ken ye what I met the day,” Mapping Keats’s Progress: A Critical Chronology, Edition 3.26 , last modified 12th July 2023. https://johnkeats.uvic.ca/poem_ah_ken_ye_what_i_met.html.

Chicago Style: Bibliography

Keats, John. “Ah! ken ye what I met the day.” Mapping Keats’s Progress: A Critical Chronology, Edition 3.26 , last modified 12th July 2023. https://johnkeats.uvic.ca/poem_ah_ken_ye_what_i_met.html.