On the Excellence of Burgundy Wine
My jolly fat host with your face all a-grin,Come, open the door to us, let us come in.A score of stout fellows who think it no sinIf they toast till they’re hoarse, and they drink till they spin,Hoofed it amain,Rain or no rain,To crack your old jokes, and your bottles to drain.
Such a warmth in the belly that nectar begetsAs soon as his guts with its humour he wets,The miser his gold, and the student his debts,And the beggar his rags and his hunger forgets.For there’s never a wineLike this tipple of thineFrom the great hill of Nuits to the River of Rhine.
Outside you may hear the great gusts as they goBy Foy, by Duerne, and the hills of Lerraulx,But the rain he may rain, and the wind he may blow,If the Devil’s above there’s good liquor below.So it abound,Pass it around,Burgundy’s Burgundy all the year round.
Words in this poem
- amain adv.
- With might; with full force; vigorously; violently; exceedingly. [Pref. a- + main. See 2d Main, n.]
- humour n.
- Moisture, especially, the moisture or fluid of animal bodies, as the chyle, lymph, etc.; as, the humors of the eye, etc. [OE. humour, OF. humor, umor, F. humeur, L. humor, umor, moisture, fluid, fr. humere, umere, to be moist. See Humid.]
- burgundy n.
- An old province of France (in the eastern central part).
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
On the Excellence of Burgundy Wine 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, On the Excellence of Burgundy Wine, in Sonnets and Verse (1923), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #60663, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/belloc-sonnets-verse/on-the-excellence-of-burgundy-wine.html, id L21684.
Form and metre
On the Excellence of Burgundy Wine is 21 lines in 3 stanzas of 7 lines each. The rhyme scheme is AAAABBB, complete in 2 of its 3 stanzas. The metre is anapaestic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 96%).
See other poems in anapaestic 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 AAAABBB grinA · inA · sinA · spinA · amainB · rainB · drainB
- 2 AAAABBB begetsA · wetsA · debtsA · forgetsA · wineB · thineB · rhineB
- 3 A-AABBB goA · lerraulx · blowA · belowA · aboundB · aroundB · roundB
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 anapaestic tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| My jolly fat host with your face all a-grin, | 11 | ·/˘········ |
| Come, open the door to us, let us come in. | 11 | ·/˘········ |
| A score of stout fellows who think it no sin | 11 | ····/˘····· |
| If they toast till they’re hoarse, and they drink till they spin, | 12 | ············ |
| Hoofed it amain, | 4 | ··˘/ |
| Rain or no rain, | 4 | ···· |
| To crack your old jokes, and your bottles to drain. | 11 | ·······/˘·· |
| Such a warmth in the belly that nectar begets | 12 | ·····/˘·/˘˘/ |
| As soon as his guts with its humour he wets, | 11 | ·······/˘·· |
| The miser his gold, and the student his debts, | 10 | ·/····/˘·· |
| And the beggar his rags and his hunger forgets. | 12 | ··/˘····/˘˘/ |
| For there’s never a wine | 6 | ··/˘·· |
| Like this tipple of thine | 6 | ··/˘·· |
| From the great hill of Nuits to the River of Rhine. | 12 | ········/˘·· |
| Outside you may hear the great gusts as they go | 11 | //········· |
| By Foy, by Duerne, and the hills of Lerraulx, | 10 | ·········· |
| But the rain he may rain, and the wind he may blow, | 12 | ············ |
| If the Devil’s above there’s good liquor below. | 12 | ··/˘····/˘·· |
| So it abound, | 4 | ··˘/ |
| Pass it around, | 4 | ···· |
| Burgundy’s Burgundy all the year round. | 8 | /˘/˘···· |
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