The Happiest Land
There sat one day in a tavern,Somewhere near Lincoln's Inn,Six sleepy-looking working men,Imbibing 'twos' of gin.
The Potman filled their tankardsWith the liquor each preferred,Torpid and somnolent they sat,And spake not one rude word.
But when the potman vanished,A brawny Scot stood forth;'Change here,' quoth he, 'for Aberdeen,Strathpeffer and the North!
'No country in the world, I ken,With Scotia can compare,With all the dour and canny men,And the bonnie lasses there.
'I hae a wee bit hoosie,An' a burn runs greetin' by,An' unco crockit MinisterAn' a bairn to milk the ki';
'I hae a muckle haggis,A bap an' a skian-dhu,A cairngorm and a bannock,An' a sonsy kailyard too!'
'Bejabers!' said an Irishman,'Acushla and Ochone!There's but one country on the Earth,Ould Oireland stands alone!
'Give me the Emerald Isle, avick!With murphies for to ate,An' as many pigs and childerAs the fingers on me fate.'
Exclaimed a Frenchman, 'Par Exemple!Donnez-moi ma Patrie!Vin ordinaire and savoir faireAre good enough for me!
'Have you the penknife of my Aunt?Mais non, helas! but then,The female gardener has gotSome paper and a pen!'
Then spoke a Greek, 'The Isles of Greece!What can compare with those?Thalassa! and Eureka!Rhododaktylos eos!'
'On London streets I'm working,With a vat of asphalt stew,Putting off the old macadam,And a-laying down the new;
'But the country of my childhoodIs the best that man may know,Oh didemi also phemi,Zoe mou sas agapo!'
Straight rose a German and remarked'Vot of die Vaterland?Ach Himmel! Unberuefen!And the luffly German band?
'Gif me some Gotterdammerung,And nuddings more I need,But ewigkeit and sauerkrautAnd niebelungenlied!'
'Nonsense!' exclaimed an Englishman.('I surely ought to know!)Old England is the only placeWhere any man should go!
'Show me the something furrinerWho such a fact denies,And, if I can't convince 'im,I can black 'is bloomin' eyes!'
Then entered in the potman,And pointed to the door;'Outside,' said he, 'is where you'll go,If I have any more!'
It was six friendly working men,Brimming with 'twos' of gin,Who crept from out the tavern,As the Dawn came creeping in.
Words in this poem 23
- somewhere adv.
- In some place unknown or not specified; in one place or another.
- potman n.
- A pot companion. Life of A. Wood (1663).
- somnolent a.
- Sleepy; drowsy; inclined to sleep. [F. somnolent, L. somnolentus, from somnus sleep, akin to Gr. svapna sleep, dream, svap to sleep, Icel. sofa, AS. swefn sleep. Cf. Hypnotic, Somnambulism, Sopori]
- brawny a.
- Having large, strong muscles; muscular; fleshy; strong.
- quoth v. t.
- Said; spoke; uttered; -- used only in the first and third persons in the past tenses, and always followed by its nominative, the word or words said being the object; as, quoth I. quoth he. [AS.cweedhan, imp cwæedh, pl. cwædon; akin to OS. queedhan, OHG. quethan, quedan, Icel. kveedha, Goth. qiþan. sq. root22. Cf. Bequeath.]
- scotia n.
- A concave molding used especially in classical architecture. [L., fr. Gr. skoti`a darkness, a sunken molding in the base of a pillar, so called from the dark shadow it casts, from sko`tos darkness.]
- dour a.
- Hard; inflexible; obstinate; sour in aspect; hardy; bold. [Cf. F. dur, L. durus.]
- canny a.
- Artful; cunning; shrewd; wary. [Cf. Icel. kenn skilled, learned, or E. canny. Cf. Kenn.]
- unco a.
- Unknown; strange, or foreign; unusual, or surprising; distant in manner; reserved. [Scot. The same word as E. uncouth.]
- bannock n.
- A kind of cake or bread, in shape flat and roundish, commonly made of oatmeal or barley meal and baked on an iron plate, or griddle; -- used in Scotland and the northern counties of England. [Gael. bonnach.]
- sonsy a.
- Lucky; fortunate; thriving; plump. [Scot. sonce, sons, prosperity, happiness, fr. Gael. & Ir. sonas.]
- irishman n.
- A man born in Ireland or of the Irish race; an Hibernian.
- isle v. t.
- To cause to become an island, or like an island; to surround or encompass; to island.
- frenchman n.
- A native or one of the people of France.
- penknife n.
- A small pocketknife; formerly, a knife used for making and mending quill pens. [Pen + knife.]
- gardener n.
- One who makes and tends a garden; a horticulturist.
- spoke n.
- The radius or ray of a wheel; one of the small bars which are inserted in the hub, or nave, and which serve to support the rim or felly. [OE. spoke, spake, AS, spaca; akin to D. speek, LG. speke, OHG. speihha, G. speiche. sq. root170. Cf. Spike a nail.]
- eureka
- The exclamation attributed to Archimedes, who is said to have cried out
- childhood n.
- The state of being a child; the time in which persons are children; the condition or time from infancy to puberty. [AS. cildhad; cild child + -had. See Child, and hood.]
- sauerkraut n.
- Cabbage cut fine and allowed to ferment in a brine made of its own juice with salt, -- a German dish. [G., fr. sauer sour + kraut herb, cabbage.]
- ought p. p.
- Was or were under obligation to pay; owed. [Orig. the preterit of the verb to owe. OE. oughte, aughte, ahte, AS. ahte. sq. root110. See Owe.]
- convince v. t.
- To overpower; to overcome; to subdue or master. [L. convincere, -victum, to refute, prove; con- + vincere to conquer. See Victor, and cf. Convict.]
- brimming a.
- Full to the brim; overflowing.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Happiest Land is in the public domain. This text is taken from Verse and Worse, Project Gutenberg ebook #36702; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Harry Graham, The Happiest Land, in Verse and Worse (1905), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #36702, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/graham-verse-and-worse/the-happiest-land.html, id L23351.
Form and metre
The Happiest Land is 76 lines in 19 stanzas of 4 lines each. The metre is common measure, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 89%).
See other poems in common measure.
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 AAAA tavernA · innA · menA · ginA
- 2 -A-A tankards · preferredA · sat · wordA
- 3 -A-A vanished · forthA · aberdeen · northA
- 4 ABAB kenA · compareB · menA · thereB
- 5 -A-A hoosie · byA · minister · kiA
- 7 AA-A irishmanA · ochoneA · earth · aloneA
- 8 -A-A avick · ateA · childer · fateA
- 10 -A-A aunt · thenA · got · penA
- 11 A--A greeceA · those · eureka · eosA
- 12 -A-A working · stewA · macadam · newA
- 13 -A-A childhood · knowA · phemi · agapoA
- 14 -A-A remarked · vaterlandA · unberuefen · bandA
- 16 -A-A englishman · knowA · place · goA
- 17 -A-A furriner · deniesA · im · eyesA
- 18 -A-A potman · doorA · go · moreA
- 19 ABAB menA · ginB · tavernA · inB
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 common measure. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| There sat one day in a tavern, | 8 | ······/˘ |
| Somewhere near Lincoln's Inn, | 6 | /··/˘· |
| Six sleepy-looking working men, | 8 | ·/˘/˘/˘· |
| Imbibing 'twos' of gin. | 6 | ˘/˘··· |
| The Potman filled their tankards | 8 | ·/˘·˘·/˘ |
| With the liquor each preferred, | 8 | ··/˘·˘/˘ |
| Torpid and somnolent they sat, | 8 | /˘·/˘˘·· |
| And spake not one rude word. | 6 | ······ |
| But when the potman vanished, | 8 | ···/˘/˘˘ |
| A brawny Scot stood forth; | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| 'Change here,' quoth he, 'for Aberdeen, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Strathpeffer and the North! | 6 | ······ |
| 'No country in the world, I ken, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| With Scotia can compare, | 6 | ·/˘·˘/ |
| With all the dour and canny men, | 8 | ···/·/˘· |
| And the bonnie lasses there. | 7 | ··/˘/˘· |
| 'I hae a wee bit hoosie, | 7 | ······· |
| An' a burn runs greetin' by, | 7 | ······· |
| An' unco crockit Minister | 8 | ·/˘··/˘˘ |
| An' a bairn to milk the ki'; | 7 | ······· |
| 'I hae a muckle haggis, | 7 | ···/˘/˘ |
| A bap an' a skian-dhu, | 6 | ······ |
| A cairngorm and a bannock, | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| An' a sonsy kailyard too!' | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| 'Bejabers!' said an Irishman, | 8 | ·····/˘˘ |
| 'Acushla and Ochone! | 6 | ······ |
| There's but one country on the Earth, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Ould Oireland stands alone! | 7 | ·····˘/ |
| 'Give me the Emerald Isle, avick! | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| With murphies for to ate, | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| An' as many pigs and childer | 8 | ··/˘···· |
| As the fingers on me fate.' | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Exclaimed a Frenchman, 'Par Exemple! | 9 | ˘/·/˘···· |
| Donnez-moi ma Patrie! | 7 | ····/˘˘ |
| Vin ordinaire and savoir faire | 8 | ········ |
| Are good enough for me! | 6 | ··˘/·· |
| 'Have you the penknife of my Aunt? | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Mais non, helas! but then, | 6 | ······ |
| The female gardener has got | 8 | ·/·/˘˘·· |
| Some paper and a pen!' | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| Then spoke a Greek, 'The Isles of Greece! | 8 | ········ |
| What can compare with those? | 6 | ··˘/·· |
| Thalassa! and Eureka! | 7 | ˘/˘·˘/˘ |
| Rhododaktylos eos!' | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| 'On London streets I'm working, | 7 | ·/˘··/˘ |
| With a vat of asphalt stew, | 7 | ····/·· |
| Putting off the old macadam, | 8 | /˘···˘/˘ |
| And a-laying down the new; | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| 'But the country of my childhood | 8 | ··/˘··/· |
| Is the best that man may know, | 7 | ······· |
| Oh didemi also phemi, | 8 | ····/˘·· |
| Zoe mou sas agapo!' | 7 | /˘····· |
| Straight rose a German and remarked | 8 | ···/˘·˘/ |
| 'Vot of die Vaterland? | 6 | ······ |
| Ach Himmel! Unberuefen! | 7 | ·/˘···· |
| And the luffly German band? | 7 | ····/˘· |
| 'Gif me some Gotterdammerung, | 8 | ···/˘·˘˘ |
| And nuddings more I need, | 6 | ······ |
| But ewigkeit and sauerkraut | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| And niebelungenlied!' | 5 | ····· |
| 'Nonsense!' exclaimed an Englishman. | 8 | /˘˘/·/˘˘ |
| ('I surely ought to know!) | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| Old England is the only place | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Where any man should go! | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| 'Show me the something furriner | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Who such a fact denies, | 6 | ····˘/ |
| And, if I can't convince 'im, | 7 | ····˘/· |
| I can black 'is bloomin' eyes!' | 7 | ······· |
| Then entered in the potman, | 8 | ·/˘˘··/˘ |
| And pointed to the door; | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| 'Outside,' said he, 'is where you'll go, | 8 | //······ |
| If I have any more!' | 6 | ···/˘· |
| It was six friendly working men, | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| Brimming with 'twos' of gin, | 6 | /˘···· |
| Who crept from out the tavern, | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| As the Dawn came creeping in. | 7 | ····/˘· |
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.