The Patriot
Scarce is my life more dear to me,Brief tutor of oblivion,Than fields below the rookeryThat comfortably looks uponThe little street of Piddington.
I never think of Avon’s meadows,Ryton woods or Rydal mere,Or moon-tide moulding Cotswold shadows,But I know that half the fearOf death’s indifference is here.
I love my land. No heart can knowThe patriot’s mystery, untilIt aches as mine for woods ablowIn Gloucestershire with daffodil,Or Bicester brakes that violets fill.
No man can tell what passion surgesFor the house of his nativityIn the patriot’s blood, until he purgesHis grosser mood of jealousy,And comes to meditate with me
Of gifts of earth that stamp his brainAs mine the pools of Ludlow mill,The hazels fencing Trilly’s Lane,And Forty Acres under Brill,The ferry under Elsfield hill.
These are what England is to me,Not empire, nor the name of herRanging from pole to tropic sea.These are the soil in which I bearAll that I have of character.
That men my fellows near and farMay live in like communion,Is all I pray; all pastures areThe best beloved beneath the sun;I have my own; I envy none.
Words in this poem
- scarce a.
- Not plentiful or abundant; in small quantity in proportion to the demand; not easily to be procured; rare; uncommon. [OE. scars, OF. escars, eschars, LL. scarpsus, for L. excerptus, p. p. of excerpere to pick out, and hence to contract, to shorten; ex (see Ex-) + carpere. See C]
- oblivion n.
- The act of forgetting, or the state of being forgotten; cessation of remembrance; forgetfulness. [L. oblivio, akin to oblivisci to forget: cf. OF. oblivion.]
- rookery n.
- The breeding place of a colony of rooks; also, the birds themselves.
- comfortably adv.
- In a comfortable or comforting manner.
- moulding n.
- The act or process of shaping in or on a mold, or of making molds; the art or occupation of a molder.
- brill n.
- A fish allied to the turbot (Rhombus levis), much esteemed in England for food; -- called also bret, pearl, prill. See Bret. [Cf. Corn. brilli mackerel, fr. brith streaked, speckled.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Patriot is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems, 1908-1919, Project Gutenberg ebook #51575; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: John Drinkwater, The Patriot, in Poems, 1908-1919 (1919), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #51575, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/drinkwater-poems/the-patriot.html, id L23121.
Form and metre
The Patriot is 35 lines in 7 stanzas of 5 lines each. The rhyme scheme is ABABB, complete in 4 of its 7 stanzas. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 86%).
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 -A-A- me · oblivionA · rookery · uponA · piddington
- 2 ABABB meadowsA · mereB · shadowsA · fearB · hereB
- 3 ABABB knowA · untilB · ablowA · daffodilB · fillB
- 4 A-A-- surgesA · nativity · purgesA · jealousy · me
- 5 ABABB brainA · millB · laneA · brillB · hillB
- 6 A-A-- meA · her · seaA · bear · character
- 7 ABABB farA · communionB · areA · sunB · noneB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Scarce is my life more dear to me, | 8 | ········ |
| Brief tutor of oblivion, | 8 | ·/˘·˘/˘˘ |
| Than fields below the rookery | 8 | ·····/˘˘ |
| That comfortably looks upon | 8 | ·/˘˘˘··· |
| The little street of Piddington. | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| I never think of Avon’s meadows, | 8 | ·/··/˘/· |
| Ryton woods or Rydal mere, | 7 | /˘····· |
| Or moon-tide moulding Cotswold shadows, | 9 | ···/˘/˘/· |
| But I know that half the fear | 7 | ······· |
| Of death’s indifference is here. | 8 | ··˘/˘˘·· |
| I love my land. No heart can know | 8 | ········ |
| The patriot’s mystery, until | 8 | ·/˘/˘˘·· |
| It aches as mine for woods ablow | 8 | ········ |
| In Gloucestershire with daffodil, | 9 | ······/˘· |
| Or Bicester brakes that violets fill. | 9 | ······/˘· |
| No man can tell what passion surges | 9 | ·····/˘/˘ |
| For the house of his nativity | 9 | ·····˘/˘˘ |
| In the patriot’s blood, until he purges | 10 | ··/˘····/˘ |
| His grosser mood of jealousy, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘˘ |
| And comes to meditate with me | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Of gifts of earth that stamp his brain | 8 | ········ |
| As mine the pools of Ludlow mill, | 8 | ·····/·· |
| The hazels fencing Trilly’s Lane, | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| And Forty Acres under Brill, | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| The ferry under Elsfield hill. | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| These are what England is to me, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Not empire, nor the name of her | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Ranging from pole to tropic sea. | 8 | /˘···/˘· |
| These are the soil in which I bear | 8 | ········ |
| All that I have of character. | 8 | ·····/˘˘ |
| That men my fellows near and far | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| May live in like communion, | 7 | ····˘/˘ |
| Is all I pray; all pastures are | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| The best beloved beneath the sun; | 8 | ··˘/···· |
| I have my own; I envy none. | 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.