Geordie

As I walked out over London bridge
One misty morning early,
I overheard a fair pretty maid
Was lamenting for her Geordie.

Ah, my Geordie will be hanged in a golden chain,
'Tis not the chain of many
He was born of king's royal breed
And lost to a virtuous lady.

Go bridle me my milk white steed,
Go bridle me my pony,
I will ride to London court
To plead for the life of my Geordie.

Ah, my Geordie never stole nor cow nor calf,
He never hurted any,
Stole sixteen of the king's royal deer,
And he sold them in Bohenny.

Two pretty babies have I born,
The third lies in my body,
I'd freely part with them every one
If you'd spare the life of Geordie.

The judge looked over his left shoulder,
He said fair maid I'm sorry
He said fair maid you must be gone
For I cannot pardon Geordie.

Ah, my Geordie will be hanged in a golden chain,
'Tis not the chain of many,
Stole sixteen of the king's royal deer
And he sold them in Bohenny.

Considering the title, the intelligent reader may expect the poem to be about a man who is called ‘Geordie’.

The layout shows that the composition ia a typical ballad, consisting of twenty-eight lines arranged into seven quartrains. The rhyme scheme is irregular but the reader may notice the recurrence of the final rhyming sound /e/ in many words, like “early”, “Geordie”, “many”, “lady” “pony”, “body” and many others. The reader may be curious to find out the reason for the repeated use of this sound. In the middle ages ballads were set to music and meant to be sung rather than read. Moreover, they were anonymous narrative poems that were handed down orally. It follows that the rhyming /e/ sound may have the function to make the poem more musical and easier to remember by heart.

The speaker reports something he saw and heard one day while he was walking over London Bridge, so the reader understands that the poem is set in London. The speaker explains that on a foggy day he heard the cry of a “fair pretty maid”, a beautiful young woman, who was lamenting the fate of her Geordie: he will be hanged in a “golden chain” because he has stolen sixteen of the royal deer. Although the girls rides to London’s Court on her pony and pleads for her Geordie, he will be executed. It follows that the ballad revolves around the themes of love and death.

Taking into consideration the structure of the composition, the reader recognises some typical features of the medieval ballad. First of all, it narrates a story and it is made up of an alternation of narrative parts and dialogues and it presents three characters: the unknown speaker, the “fair pretty maid” and the judge. Moreover, the recurrent use of repetitions of sentences like “O, my Geordie will be hanged  in a golden chain” (ll. 5, 25), “stole sixteen of the King's royal deer” (ll. 15, 26) and “And he sold them in Bohenny” (ll.16,28) or of phrases like “fair maid” (ll.22,23). The repetition, in this case, helps to devolp the story and creates a musical effect at the same time. Then the reader's attention may focus on the occurence of many alliterations int the whole poem. In the first stanza the sound /m/ appears in “misty morning” and “maid” emphasises the general atmosphere sadness because it  recalls the sound of a lament. In the sixth stanza the alliteration of the /s/ sound seems to have another function: “sorry” and “So” follow one another but they are not linked and maybe they underline the strictness of law: the judge is sorry but (so) he cannot pardon Geordie. Another element which is typical of the ballad is the presence of a bad omen (“The judge looked over his left shoulder” l.21) and the fact that the poem will end with the death of Geordie.