Auvergnat
There was a man was half a clown(It’s so my father tells of it).He saw the church in Clermont townAnd laughed to hear the bells of it.
He laughed to hear the bells that ringIn Clermont Church and round of it;He heard the verger’s daughter sing,And loved her for the sound of it.
The verger’s daughter said him nay;She had the right of choice in it.He left the town at break of day:He hadn’t had a voice in it.
The road went up, the road went down,And there the matter ended it.He broke his heart in Clermont town,At Pontgibaud they mended it.
Words in this poem
- went n.
- Course; way; path; journey; direction.
- broke v. i.
- To transact business for another. Brome. [See Broker, and cf. Brook.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Auvergnat is in the public domain. This text is taken from Sonnets and Verse, Project Gutenberg ebook #60663; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Hilaire Belloc, Auvergnat, in Sonnets and Verse (1923), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #60663, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/belloc-sonnets-verse/auvergnat.html, id L21683.
Form and metre
Auvergnat is 16 lines in 4 stanzas of 4 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABAB. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 90%).
See other poems in iambic tetrameter.
Measured by Laurel's pipeline, not copied from a handbook: how stress and metre are counted, how rhyme is lettered, how a drifted rhyme is found. Where the dictionary cannot confirm a rhyme the letter is withheld, not guessed.
Rhyme words, stanza by stanza
The word that ends each line, lettered by the rhyme it makes; a dash is a line whose rhyme the dictionary could not confirm.
- 1 ABAB clownA · itB · townA · itB
- 2 ABAB ringA · itB · singA · itB
- 3 ABAB nayA · itB · dayA · itB
- 4 ABAB downA · itB · townA · itB
Scansion, line by line
Each line with its syllable count and the stresses the words themselves fix: / stressed, ˘ unstressed, · a syllable the word leaves free and the metre decides. Read against iambic tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| There was a man was half a clown | 8 | ········ |
| (It’s so my father tells of it). | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| He saw the church in Clermont town | 8 | ·····/·· |
| And laughed to hear the bells of it. | 8 | ········ |
| He laughed to hear the bells that ring | 8 | ········ |
| In Clermont Church and round of it; | 8 | ·/······ |
| He heard the verger’s daughter sing, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| And loved her for the sound of it. | 8 | ········ |
| The verger’s daughter said him nay; | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| She had the right of choice in it. | 8 | ········ |
| He left the town at break of day: | 8 | ········ |
| He hadn’t had a voice in it. | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| The road went up, the road went down, | 8 | ········ |
| And there the matter ended it. | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| He broke his heart in Clermont town, | 8 | ·····/·· |
| At Pontgibaud they mended it. | 8 | ·····/˘· |
The reader shows the same poem with its rhymes coloured and a stress row above each line, the notes beside their stanzas, and any word's definition on a tap; the analysis page takes the whole book apart. How every part of this site was made.