An original something, fair maid you would win me To writeöbut how shall I begin? For I fear I have nothing original in meö Excepting Original Sin.

-Campbell,Thomas
  'To aYoung Lady, Who  Asked Me to Write Something Original for Her  Album'.

Yet I would not die a maid, because I had a mother, As I was by one brought forth, I would bring forth another.

-Campion,Thomas
  Fourth Book of  Airs,'Fain Would I  Wed'.

A damsel with a dulcimer In a vision once I saw: It was an Abyssinian maid, And on her dulcimer she played, Singing of Mount Abora.

-Coleridge, Samuel Taylor
  'Kubla Khan'.

Being an old maid is like death by drowning, a really delightful sensation after you cease to struggle. But weel wat I they coudna bring Waur sounds frae hell.

-Ferber, Edna
  'To the Tron-Kirk Bell', stanza1.

How, like a moth, the simple maid Still plays around the flame!

-Gay,John
  The Beggar's Opera, act1, sc.4, air 4.

War has three handmaidens ever waiting on her, Fire, Blood, and Famine, and I have chosen the meekest maid of the three.

-Henry V
  Comment during the English army's siege of Rouen. Quoted in  J R Green  A Short History of the English People, vol.1 (1915), ch.5, section 6.

Be good, sweet maid, and let who will be clever; Do noble things, do not dream them, all day long: And so make life, death, and that vast for-ever One grand, sweet song.

-Kingsley, Charles
  'A Farewell'.

   There be triple ways to take, of the eagle or the snake, Or the way of a man with a maid; But the sweetest way to me is a ship's upon the sea In the heel of the North-East Trade.

-Kipling, (Joseph) Rudyard
  'The Long Trail'.

This is the month, and this the happy morn Wherein the son of Heaven's eternal King, Of wedded maid and virgin mother born, Our great redemption from above did bring.

-Milton,John
  'On the Morning of Christ's Nativity','The Hymn', stanza1.

I'm just an awkward old maid with a very great affection for men.

-Reno,Janet
  Denying rumours that she was a lesbian. In theWashington Times, 22 Feb.

'Is your maid called Florence?' 'Her name is Florinda.' 'What an extraordinary name to give a maid!' 'I did not give it to her; she arrived in my service already christened'.'What I mean is,'said Mrs Riversedge,'that when Iget maids with unsuitable names I call them Jane; they soon get used to it.' 'An excellent plan,'said theaunt of Clovis coldly; 'unfortunately I have got used to being called Jane myself. It happens to be my name.'

-Saki pseudonym of  Hector Hugh Munro
The Chronicles of Clovis,'The Secret Sin of Septimus Brope'.

  A weary lot is thine, fair maid, A weary lot is thine! To pull the thorn thy brow to braid, And press the rue for wine!

-Scott, Sir Walter
  Rokeby, canto 3, stanza 28,'Song'.

Widowed wife, and married maid, Betrothed, betrayer, and betrayed!

-Scott, Sir Walter
  The Betrothal, ch.15.

  The maid (and thereby hangs a tale) For such a maid no Whitson-ale Could ever yet produce: No grape that's kindly ripe, could be So round, so plump, so soft as she, Nor half so full of juice.

-Suckling, SirJohn
  'Ballad: Upon aWedding'.

Come down,O maid, from yonder mountain height: What pleasure lives in height?

-Tennyson
  The Princess, pt.7, added song, l.1^2.

To love one maiden only, cleave to her, And worship her by years of noble deeds, Until they won her; for indeed I knew Of no more subtle master under heaven Than is the maiden passion for a maid, Not only to keep down the base in man, But teach high thought, and aimable words And courtliness, and the desire of fame, And love of truth, and all that makes man.

-Tennyson
  Idylls of the King,'Guinevere', l.472^80.

She dwelt among the untrodden ways Beside the springs of Dove, A maid whom there were none to praise And very few to love: Aviolet bya mossy stone Half hidden from the eye! öFair as a star, when only one Is shining in the sky. She lived unknown, and few could know When Lucy ceased to be; But she is in her grave, and, oh, The difference to me!

-Wordsworth,William
  'She dwelt among the untrodden ways', complete poem (published1800).