Maud Muller is a dissatisfied maiden

Stanzas three through six of Whittier's poem, Maud Muller, contain a powerful message.

Singing, she wrought, and her merry glee

The mock-bird echoed from his tree.

But, when she glanced to the far-off town,

White from its hill-slope looking down,

The sweet song died, and a vague unrest

And a nameless longing filled her breast--

A wish, that she hardly dared to own,

For something better than she had known.

Muller was happy until she "glanced" at a distant town. That glance changed her glee to a frown. The glance silenced her song and stirred a "nameless longing." She hoped "For something better than she had known." Of special interest are Whittier's words that Muller "hardly dared to own" her wish.

The most powerful word in the last quote is possible the most powerful word in the whole poem: own. It's one thing to make a wish; it's quite another to "own" a wish. It's a much stronger form of attachment. It reveals how much she would like her life to change, a life she's been dissatisfied with. That dissatisfaction is shown in this line: "For something better than she had known."

Wanting more than one has is a common human condition, one that Whittier reveals in an uncommon way.