Our Country
A land there is, lying near far-northern snow,Where only the fissures life's springtime may know.But surging, the sea tells of great deeds done,And loved is the land as a mother by son.
What time we were little and sat on her knee,She gave us her saga with pictures to see.We read till our eyes opened wide and moist,While nodding and smiling she mute rejoiced.
We went to the fjord and in wonder beheldThe ashen-gray bauta, that record of eld;Still older she stood and her silence kept,While stone-studded hows all around us slept.
Our hands she then took and away o'er the hillShe led to the church ever lowly and still,Where humbly our forefathers knelt to pray,And mildly she taught us: "Do ye as they!"
She scattered her snow on the mountain's steep side,Then bade on swift skis her young manhood to glide;The North Sea she maddened with scourge of gales,Then bade her young manhood to hoist the sails.
Of beautiful maidens she gathered a throng,To follow our daring with smiles and with song,While she sat enthroned with her saga's scrollIn mantle of moonlight beneath the Pole.
Then "Forward, go forward!" was borne on the wind,"With forefathers' aim and with forefathers' mind,For freedom, for Norsehood, for Norway, hurrah!"While echoing mountains voiced their hurrah.
Then life-giving fountains burst forth on our sight,Then we were baptized with her spirit of might,Then gleamed o'er the mountains a vision high,That summons us onward until we die.
Words in this poem
- springtime n.
- The season of spring; springtide.
- saga n.
- A Scandinavian legend, or heroic or mythic tradition, among the Norsemen and kindred people; a northern European popular historical or religious tale of olden time. [Icel., akin to E. saw a saying. See Say, and cf. Saw.]
- went n.
- Course; way; path; journey; direction.
- ashen a.
- Of or pertaining to the ash tree. [See Ash, the tree.]
- humbly adv.
- With humility; lowly.
- bade
- A form of the pat tense of Bid.
- scourge n.
- A lash; a strap or cord; especially, a lash used to inflict pain or punishment; an instrument of punishment or discipline; a whip. [F. escourgée, fr. L. excoriata (sc. scutica) a stripped off (lash or whip), fr. excoriate to strip, to skin. See Excoriate.]
- hurrah interj.
- A word used as a shout of joy, triumph, applause, encouragement, or welcome. [Cf. G., Dan., & Sw. hurra. Cf. Huzza.]
- voiced a.
- Furnished with a voice; expressed by the voice.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Our Country is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems and Songs, Project Gutenberg ebook #6619, the Arthur Hubbell Palmer translation; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson, Our Country, in Poems and Songs (1915), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #6619, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/bjornson-poems-and-songs/our-country.html, id L29241.
Form and metre
Our Country is 32 lines in 8 stanzas of 4 lines each. Every stanza rhymes AABB. The metre is anapaestic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 81%).
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 AABB snowA · knowA · doneB · sonB
- 2 AABB kneeA · seeA · moistB · rejoicedB
- 3 AABB beheldA · eldA · keptB · sleptB
- 4 AABB hillA · stillA · prayB · theyB
- 5 AABB sideA · glideA · galesB · sailsB
- 6 AABB throngA · songA · scrollB · poleB
- 7 AABB windA · mindA · hurrahB · hurrahB
- 8 AABB sightA · mightA · highB · dieB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| A land there is, lying near far-northern snow, | 11 | ····/˘··/˘· |
| Where only the fissures life's springtime may know. | 11 | ·/˘·/˘·/··· |
| But surging, the sea tells of great deeds done, | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| And loved is the land as a mother by son. | 11 | ·······/˘·· |
| What time we were little and sat on her knee, | 11 | ····/˘····· |
| She gave us her saga with pictures to see. | 11 | ····/˘·/˘·· |
| We read till our eyes opened wide and moist, | 11 | ···/˘·/˘··· |
| While nodding and smiling she mute rejoiced. | 11 | ·/˘·/˘··˘/˘ |
| We went to the fjord and in wonder beheld | 11 | ·······/˘˘/ |
| The ashen-gray bauta, that record of eld; | 11 | ·/˘····/˘·· |
| Still older she stood and her silence kept, | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| While stone-studded hows all around us slept. | 10 | ··/˘······ |
| Our hands she then took and away o'er the hill | 11 | /·····˘/··· |
| She led to the church ever lowly and still, | 11 | ·····/˘/˘·· |
| Where humbly our forefathers knelt to pray, | 11 | ·/˘/˘/·˘··· |
| And mildly she taught us: "Do ye as they!" | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| She scattered her snow on the mountain's steep side, | 11 | ·/˘····/˘·· |
| Then bade on swift skis her young manhood to glide; | 11 | ·······/··· |
| The North Sea she maddened with scourge of gales, | 11 | ····/˘˘···· |
| Then bade her young manhood to hoist the sails. | 10 | ····/····· |
| Of beautiful maidens she gathered a throng, | 11 | ·/˘˘/˘·/˘·· |
| To follow our daring with smiles and with song, | 11 | ·/˘//˘····· |
| While she sat enthroned with her saga's scroll | 11 | ·····˘··/˘· |
| In mantle of moonlight beneath the Pole. | 10 | ·/˘·/····· |
| Then "Forward, go forward!" was borne on the wind, | 11 | ·/˘·/˘····· |
| "With forefathers' aim and with forefathers' mind, | 11 | ·/·˘···/·˘· |
| For freedom, for Norsehood, for Norway, hurrah!" | 12 | ·/˘·····/·˘/ |
| While echoing mountains voiced their hurrah. | 11 | ·/˘˘/˘·˘·˘/ |
| Then life-giving fountains burst forth on our sight, | 11 | ··/˘/˘···/· |
| Then we were baptized with her spirit of might, | 11 | ···/···/˘·· |
| Then gleamed o'er the mountains a vision high, | 11 | ··˘··/˘·/˘· |
| That summons us onward until we die. | 10 | ·/˘·/˘···· |
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.