The Malvern Hills
THE Malvern Hills be green some days,And some days purple-blue,There never was the like of themThe whole of England through.
From Hanley straight into the WellsThe road runs long and white,And there the hills they meet your gazeAgainst the evening light.
Against the evening light they stand,So proud, and dark, and old,The Raggedstone and Hollybush,And Worcester Beacon bold.
No matter where you chance to be,However far away,You’ll see the hills awaiting youAt close of every day.
Oh! it’s a lovely sight to seeThe twilight stealing downTheir steepish banks and little paths,Along to Malvern town.
And maybe on the Severn side,Hung low on Bredon’s mound,The big red harvest moon will rise,So lazy-like and round.
They talks a lot o’ foreign parts,Them as has seen them do,But give me Malvern Hills at duskAll green or purple-blue!
Words in this poem
- steepish a.
- Somewhat steep. Carlyle.
- maybe adv.
- Perhaps; possibly; peradventure. [For it may be.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Malvern Hills is in the public domain. This text is taken from Songs of Three Counties, and Other Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #50591; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Radclyffe Hall, The Malvern Hills, in Songs of Three Counties, and Other Poems (1913), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #50591, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/hall-three-counties/the-malvern-hills.html, id L22662.
Form and metre
The Malvern Hills is 28 lines in 7 stanzas of 4 lines each. The metre is common measure, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 96%).
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 -A-A days · blueA · them · throughA
- 2 -A-A wells · whiteA · gaze · lightA
- 3 -A-A stand · oldA · hollybush · boldA
- 4 -A-A be · awayA · you · dayA
- 5 -A-A see · downA · paths · townA
- 6 -A-A side · moundA · rise · roundA
- 7 -A-A parts · doA · dusk · blueA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| THE Malvern Hills be green some days, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| And some days purple-blue, | 6 | ···/˘· |
| There never was the like of them | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| The whole of England through. | 6 | ···/˘· |
| From Hanley straight into the Wells | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| The road runs long and white, | 6 | ······ |
| And there the hills they meet your gaze | 8 | ········ |
| Against the evening light. | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Against the evening light they stand, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| So proud, and dark, and old, | 6 | ······ |
| The Raggedstone and Hollybush, | 8 | ········ |
| And Worcester Beacon bold. | 6 | ·/˘/˘· |
| No matter where you chance to be, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| However far away, | 6 | ·/˘·˘/ |
| You’ll see the hills awaiting you | 8 | ····˘/˘· |
| At close of every day. | 7 | ···/˘˘· |
| Oh! it’s a lovely sight to see | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| The twilight stealing down | 6 | ·/·/˘· |
| Their steepish banks and little paths, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Along to Malvern town. | 6 | ˘/·/˘· |
| And maybe on the Severn side, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Hung low on Bredon’s mound, | 6 | ······ |
| The big red harvest moon will rise, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| So lazy-like and round. | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| They talks a lot o’ foreign parts, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Them as has seen them do, | 6 | ······ |
| But give me Malvern Hills at dusk | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| All green or purple-blue! | 6 | ···/˘· |
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.