His Country
I journeyed from my native spotAcross the south sea shine,And found that people in hall and cotLaboured and suffered each his lotEven as I did mine.
Thus noting them in meads and martsIt did not seem to meThat my dear country with its hearts,Minds, yearnings, worse and better partsHad ended with the sea.
I further and further went anon,As such I still surveyed,And further yet—yea, on and on,And all the men I looked uponHad heart-strings fellow-made.
I traced the whole terrestrial round,Homing the other side;Then said I, “What is there to boundMy denizenship? It seems I have foundIts scope to be world-wide.”
I asked me: “Whom have I to fight,And whom have I to dare,And whom to weaken, crush, and blight?My country seems to have kept in sightOn my way everywhere.”
Words in this poem
- laboured a.
- Bearing marks of labor and effort; elaborately wrought; not easy or natural; as, labored poetry; a labored style.
- yearnings n.
- The maws, or stomachs, of young calves, used a rennet for curdling milk. [Cf. AS. geirnan, geyrnan, to rum. See 4th Earn.]
- went n.
- Course; way; path; journey; direction.
- anon adv.
- Straightway; at once. [OE. anoon, anon, anan, lit., in one (moment), fr. AS. on in + an one. See On and One.]
- homing a.
- Home-returning; -- used specifically of carrier pigeons.
- denizenship n.
- State of being a denizen.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
His Country is in the public domain. This text is taken from Moments of Vision and Miscellaneous Verses, Project Gutenberg ebook #3255; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Thomas Hardy, His Country, in Moments of Vision and Miscellaneous Verses (1917), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #3255, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/hardy-moments-of-vision/his-country.html, id L24234.
Form and metre
His Country is 25 lines in 5 stanzas of 5 lines each. The rhyme scheme is ABAAB, complete in 4 of its 5 stanzas. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 85%).
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 ABAAB spotA · shineB · cotA · lotA · mineB
- 2 ABAAB martsA · meB · heartsA · partsA · seaB
- 3 -ABBA anon · surveyedA · onB · uponB · madeA
- 4 ABAAB roundA · sideB · boundA · foundA · wideB
- 5 ABAAB fightA · dareB · blightA · sightA · everywhereB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| I journeyed from my native spot | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Across the south sea shine, | 6 | ˘/···· |
| And found that people in hall and cot | 9 | ···/˘···· |
| Laboured and suffered each his lot | 8 | /˘·/˘··· |
| Even as I did mine. | 6 | /˘···· |
| Thus noting them in meads and marts | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| It did not seem to me | 6 | ······ |
| That my dear country with its hearts, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Minds, yearnings, worse and better parts | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Had ended with the sea. | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| I further and further went anon, | 9 | ·/˘·/˘·˘/ |
| As such I still surveyed, | 6 | ····˘/ |
| And further yet—yea, on and on, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| And all the men I looked upon | 8 | ········ |
| Had heart-strings fellow-made. | 6 | ···/˘· |
| I traced the whole terrestrial round, | 8 | ····˘/˘· |
| Homing the other side; | 6 | /˘·/˘· |
| Then said I, “What is there to bound | 8 | ········ |
| My denizenship? It seems I have found | 10 | ·/˘˘˘····· |
| Its scope to be world-wide.” | 6 | ······ |
| I asked me: “Whom have I to fight, | 8 | ········ |
| And whom have I to dare, | 6 | ······ |
| And whom to weaken, crush, and blight? | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| My country seems to have kept in sight | 9 | ·/˘······ |
| On my way everywhere.” | 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.