A Three-Part Song
I'm just in love with all these three,The Weald and the Marsh and the Down countrie;Nor I don't know which I love the most,The Weald or the Marsh or the white chalk coast!
I've buried my heart in a ferny hill,Twix' a liddle low shaw an' a great high gill.Oh hop-bine yaller an' wood-smoke blue,I reckon you'll keep her middling true!
I've loosed my mind for to out and runOn a Marsh that was old when Kings begun.Oh Romney Level and Brenzett reeds,I reckon you know what my mind needs!
I've given my soul to the Southdown grass,And sheep-bells tinkled where you pass.Oh Firle an' Ditchling an' sails at sea,I reckon you keep my soul for me!
Words in this poem
- weald n.
- A wood or forest; a wooded land or region; also, an open country; -- often used in place names. [AS. See Wold.]
- ferny a.
- Abounding in ferns.
- shaw n.
- A thicket; a small wood or grove. [Obs. or Prov.Eng. & Scot.] [OE. schawe, scha, thicket, grove, AS. scaga; akin to Dan. skov, Sw. skog, Icel. sk.]
- middling a.
- Of middle rank, state, size, or quality; about equally distant from the extremes; medium; moderate; mediocre; ordinary.
- needs adv.
- Of necessity; necessarily; indispensably; -- often with must, and equivalent to of need. [Orig. gen. of need, used as an adverb. Cf. - wards.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
A Three-Part Song is in the public domain. This text is taken from Songs from Books, Project Gutenberg ebook #15529; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Rudyard Kipling, A Three-Part Song, in Songs from Books (1912), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #15529, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/kipling-songs-from-books/a-three-part-song.html, id L20279.
Form and metre
A Three-Part Song is 16 lines in 4 stanzas of 4 lines each. The rhyme scheme is AABB, complete in 3 of its 4 stanzas. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 75%).
See other poems in iambic pentameter.
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 --AA three · countrie · mostA · coastA
- 2 AABB hillA · gillA · blueB · trueB
- 3 AABB runA · begunA · reedsB · needsB
- 4 AABB grassA · passA · seaB · meB
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 pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| I'm just in love with all these three, | 8 | ········ |
| The Weald and the Marsh and the Down countrie; | 10 | ·········· |
| Nor I don't know which I love the most, | 9 | ········· |
| The Weald or the Marsh or the white chalk coast! | 10 | ·········· |
| I've buried my heart in a ferny hill, | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| Twix' a liddle low shaw an' a great high gill. | 11 | ··/˘······· |
| Oh hop-bine yaller an' wood-smoke blue, | 9 | ········· |
| I reckon you'll keep her middling true! | 10 | ·/˘···/˘˘· |
| I've loosed my mind for to out and run | 10 | ··˘······· |
| On a Marsh that was old when Kings begun. | 10 | ········˘/ |
| Oh Romney Level and Brenzett reeds, | 9 | ·/˘/˘···· |
| I reckon you know what my mind needs! | 9 | ·/˘······ |
| I've given my soul to the Southdown grass, | 10 | ·/˘····/·· |
| And sheep-bells tinkled where you pass. | 9 | ···/˘˘··· |
| Oh Firle an' Ditchling an' sails at sea, | 10 | ·········· |
| I reckon you keep my soul for me! | 9 | ·/˘······ |
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.