The Dairy Maid

A slight revision to The Canterbury Tales ...

You’ve heard about the others on this quest
Each devout pilgrim seeking to be blessed
Canterbury is their destination
Each one hoping for his own salvation.

There is one pilgrim who had been left out.
Just overlooked, an accident, no doubt.
So, let me share this narrative with you
The telling of her tale is overdue.


The Dairy Maid

A dairy maid did travel with this troupe
And with her were three cows, all in a group.
Their names were Daisy, Sadie, Anna-Belle
And truth be told, she cared for each one well.

She wore a homespun cloak of forest green
And had a walking stick on which to lean.
Above her ankle’s height, she wore her skirt
To keep the hem from dragging in the dirt.

Her bodice, snugly laced, was dusty rose
No boots or shoes, just road dust on her toes.
A cup hung from a sash around her waist
To use for milk, if she should need a taste.

The satchel on her back was old and worn
And inside, it was filled with oats and corn.
Her bovine friends were always quite well fed
She tended them before she ate her bread.

She carried in one hand, a wooden pail.
She milked her cows and offered milk for sale.
The currency that she received as pay
Provided funds for travel every day.

She liked to sing; she had a lovely voice.
Her singing could make cherubim rejoice.
Her favored task was making others smile.
For her, this joy was not an act of guile.

This dairy maid was tall with hair of gold.
Her manner was quite shy, not loud or bold.
A pleasant face upon which freckles danced
And rosy cheeks which kept the lads entranced.

Her blue-green eyes, the color of the seas
And skin of honey, taken from the bees.
The maid was not aware how she aroused
She thought herself as homely as her cows.

The other pilgrims thought her tender age
Was much too youthful for her to engage
Upon a trip so long and so alone
Because to them, her reasons were unknown.

The maid became a pilgrim on this quest
Because her fate had left her quite distressed.
Her home had burned and both her parents died.
Her cows had gathered ‘round her while she cried.

No sister, brother, cousin, uncle, aunt --
Just blackened rooms through which the ghosts could haunt.
Her cows became her only family
So off they went, the maid and bovines three.

She wandered for awhile before she knew
A pilgrimage was just what she should do.
She asked from place to place, where she should go
To find a place to take away her woe.

“A trip to Canterbury is the thing.”
“A pilgrimage is what you need this spring.”
She heard these words from every hearth and field
So, with this trip she hoped she would be healed.

In Canterbury, she hoped she would find
Some comfort and some solace for her mind.
So, at the hostelry, the Tabard Inn,
She joined our group before we did begin.

(iambic pentameter - rhyming couplets)