  A notion of meromorphic open-string vertex algebra is introduced. A
meromorphic open-string vertex algebra is an open-string vertex algebra in the
sense of Kong and the author satisfying additional rationality (or
meromorphicity) conditions for vertex operators. The vertex operator map for a
meromorphic open-string vertex algebra satisfies rationality and associativity
but in general does not satisfy the Jacobi identity, commutativity, the
commutator formula, the skew-symmetry or even the associator formula. Given a
vector space \mathfrak{h}, we construct a meromorphic open-string vertex
algebra structure on the tensor algebra of the negative part of the
affinization of \mathfrak{h} such that the vertex algebra struture on the
symmetric algebra of the negative part of the Heisenberg algebra associated to
\mathfrak{h} is a quotient of this meromorphic open-string vertex algebra. We
also introduce the notion of left module for a meromorphic open-string vertex
algebra and construct left modules for the meromorphic open-string vertex
algebra above.
