When A Merry Maiden Marries Poem by William Schwenck Gilbert
When A Merry Maiden Marries
When a merry maiden marries,
Sorrow goes and pleasure tarries;
Every sound becomes a song,
All is right and nothing's wrong!
From to-day and ever after
Let your tears be tears of laughter -
Every sigh that finds a vent
Be a sigh of sweet content!
When you marry merry maiden,
Then the air with love is laden;
Every flower is a rose,
Every goose becomes a swan,
Every kind of trouble goes
Where the last year's snows have gone;
Sunlight takes the place of shade
When you marry merry maid!
When a merry maiden marries
Sorrow goes and pleasure tarries;
Every sound becomes a song,
All is right, and nothing's wrong.
Gnawing Care and aching Sorrow,
Get ye gone until to-morrow;
Jealousies in grim array,
Ye are things of yesterday!
When you marry merry maiden,
Then the air with joy is laden;
All the corners of the earth
Ring with music sweetly played,
Worry is melodious mirth,
Grief is joy in masquerade;
Sullen night is laughing day -
All the year is merry May!
I love this poem. I printed it out for my graddaughter as soon as she became engaged. Pity she never studed Gilbert and Sullivan in school. My father used to take us to the Jan Hus Theater in New York City whenever there was a production by G & S. That was my introduction at a very early age - maybe 7 or 8 years old.
This poem has not been translated into any other language yet.
I would like to translate this poem
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4/27/2024 4:04:53 PM # 1.0.0.1119
My Columbia University speech professor, Lee Raney, in the summer of 1962 (evening class) chose this poem for us to practice our diction - mostly for the alliteration. I would go to the first car of the NYC #1 (IRT) subway train and from 242nd street to 116th street shout this poem out into the darkness from the front window. The train made so much noise that I couldn't hear myself shouting so I wasn't worried about bothering the other passengers.