Analysis of The South Country
Hilaire Belloc 1870 (La Celle-Saint-Cloud) – 1953
When I am living in the Midlands
That are sodden and unkind,
I light my lamp in the evening:
My work is left behind;
And the great hills of the South Country
Come back into my mind.
The great hills of the South Country
They stand along the sea;
And it's there walking in the high woods
That I could wish to be,
And the men that were boys when I was a boy
Walking along with me.
The men that live in North England
I saw them for a day:
Their hearts are set upon the waste fells,
Their skies are fast and grey;
From their castle-walls a man may see
The mountains far away.
The men that live in West England
They see the Severn strong,
A-rolling on rough water brown
Light aspen leaves along.
They have the secret of the Rocks,
And the oldest kind of song.
But the men that live in the South Country
Are the kindest and most wise,
They get their laughter from the loud surf,
And the faith in their happy eyes
Comes surely from our Sister the Spring
When over the sea she flies;
The violets suddenly bloom at her feet,
She blesses us with surprise.
I never get between the pines
But I smell the Sussex air;
Nor I never come on a belt of sand
But my home is there.
And along the sky the line of the Downs
So noble and so bare.
A lost thing could I never find,
Nor a broken thing mend:
And I fear I shall be all alone
When I get towards the end.
Who will there be to comfort me
Or who will be my friend?
I will gather and carefully make my friends
Of the men of the Sussex Weald;
They watch the stars from silent folds,
They stiffly plough the field.
By them and the God of the South Country
My poor soul shall be healed.
If I ever become a rich man,
Or if ever I grow to be old,
I will build a house with deep thatch
To shelter me from the cold,
And there shall the Sussex songs be sung
And the story of Sussex told.
I will hold my house in the high wood
Within a walk of the sea,
And the men that were boys when I was a boy
Shall sit and drink with me.
Scheme | xabaca ccxcDc efxfcf egxgxg chxhbhxh xixixi ajxjcj xaxkck xlxlxl xcDc |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Etheree (23%) |
Metre | 11110001 1110001 11110010 111101 001110110 110111 01110110 110101 011100011 111111 00110111101 100111 01110110 111101 111101011 111101 111010111 010101 01110110 110101 01011101 110101 11010101 0010111 1011100110 1010011 111101011 00101101 1101101001 1100111 01001001101 1101101 11010101 1110101 1110110111 11111 0010101101 110011 01111101 101011 011111101 1110101 11111101 111111 11100100111 10110101 11011101 110101 1100110110 111111 111001011 111011111 11101111 1101101 011010111 00101101 111110011 0101101 00110111101 110111 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 2,546 |
Words | 403 |
Sentences | 15 |
Stanzas | 10 |
Stanza Lengths | 6, 6, 6, 6, 8, 6, 6, 6, 6, 4 |
Lines Amount | 60 |
Letters per line (avg) | 25 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 151 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 40 |
Font size:
Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 30, 2023
- 2:01 min read
- 320 Views
Citation
Use the citation below to add this poem analysis to your bibliography:
Style:MLAChicagoAPA
"The South Country" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 28 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/19248/the-south-country>.
Discuss this Hilaire Belloc poem analysis with the community:
Report Comment
We're doing our best to make sure our content is useful, accurate and safe.
If by any chance you spot an inappropriate comment while navigating through our website please use this form to let us know, and we'll take care of it shortly.
Attachment
You need to be logged in to favorite.
Log In