Ha’Nacker Mill
Sally is gone that was so kindlySally is gone from Ha’nacker Hill.And the Briar grows ever since then so blindlyAnd ever since then the clapper is still,And the sweeps have fallen from Ha’nacker Mill
Ha’nacker Hill is in Desolation:Ruin a-top and a field unploughed.And Spirits that call on a fallen nationSpirits that loved her calling aloud:Spirits abroad in a windy cloud.
Spirits that call and no one answers;Ha’nacker’s down and England’s done.Wind and Thistle for pipe and dancersAnd never a ploughman under the Sun.Never a ploughman. Never a one.
Words in this poem
- briar n.
- A plant with a slender woody stem bearing stout prickles; especially, species of Rosa, Rubus, and Smilax. [OE. brere, brer, AS. brer, brær; cf. Ir. briar prickle, thorn, brier, pin, Gael. preas bush, brier, W. prys, prysg.]
- blindly adv.
- Without sight, discernment, or understanding; without thought, investigation, knowledge, or purpose of one's own.
- clapper n.
- A rabbit burrow. [F. clapier.]
- desolation n.
- The act of desolating or laying waste; destruction of inhabitants; depopulation. [F. désolation, L. desolatio.]
- aloud adv.
- With a loud voice, or great noise; loudly; audibly. [Pref. a- + loud.]
- ploughman n.
- One who plows, or who holds and guides a plow; hence, a husbandman. Chaucer.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Ha’Nacker Mill 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, Ha’Nacker Mill, in Sonnets and Verse (1923), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #60663, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/belloc-sonnets-verse/ha-nacker-mill.html, id L21690.
Form and metre
Ha’Nacker Mill is 15 lines in 3 stanzas of 5 lines each. The rhyme scheme is ABABB, complete in 2 of its 3 stanzas. This poem did not settle on a metre of its own; the book it comes from is in iambic tetrameter.
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 ABABB kindlyA · hillB · blindlyA · stillB · millB
- 2 A-ABB desolationA · unploughed · nationA · aloudB · cloudB
- 3 ABABB answersA · doneB · dancersA · sunB · oneB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Sally is gone that was so kindly | 9 | /˘·····/˘ |
| Sally is gone from Ha’nacker Hill. | 9 | /˘······· |
| And the Briar grows ever since then so blindly | 10 | ··/·/···/˘ |
| And ever since then the clapper is still, | 9 | ·/···/˘·· |
| And the sweeps have fallen from Ha’nacker Mill | 11 | ····/˘····· |
| Ha’nacker Hill is in Desolation: | 10 | ·······˘/˘ |
| Ruin a-top and a field unploughed. | 8 | /······· |
| And Spirits that call on a fallen nation | 11 | ·/˘····/˘/˘ |
| Spirits that loved her calling aloud: | 9 | /˘···/˘˘/ |
| Spirits abroad in a windy cloud. | 9 | /˘˘/··/˘· |
| Spirits that call and no one answers; | 9 | /˘·····/˘ |
| Ha’nacker’s down and England’s done. | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Wind and Thistle for pipe and dancers | 9 | ··/˘···/˘ |
| And never a ploughman under the Sun. | 9 | ·/······· |
| Never a ploughman. Never a one. | 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.