The Run of the Downs
The Weald is good, the Downs are best--I'll give you the run of 'em, East to West.Beachy Head and Winddoor Hill,They were once and they are still,Firle, Mount Caburn and Mount HarryGo back as far as sums'll carry.Ditchling Beacon and Chanctonbury Ring,They have looked on many a thing,And what those two have missed between 'emI reckon Truleigh Hill has seen 'em.Highden, Bignor and Duncton DownKnew Old England before the Crown.Linch Down, Treyford and SunwoodKnew Old England before the Flood.And when you end on the Hampshire side--Butser's old as Time and Tide.The Downs are sheep, the Weald is corn,You be glad you are Sussex born!
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.]
- beachy a.
- Having a beach or beaches; formed by a beach or beaches; shingly.
- caburn n.
- A small line made of spun yarn, to bind or worm cables, seize tackles, etc. [Cf. Cable, n.]
- harry v. i.
- To make a predatory incursion; to plunder or lay waste.
- linch n.
- A ledge; a right-angled projection. [AS. hlinc a hill.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Run of the Downs 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, The Run of the Downs, in Songs from Books (1912), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #15529, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/kipling-songs-from-books/the-run-of-the-downs.html, id L20280.
Form and metre
The Run of the Downs is 18 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets: octosyllabic couplets. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 83%).
See other poems in octosyllabic couplets, 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 AABBCCDDEEFFGGHHII bestA · westA · hillB · stillB · harryC · carryC · ringD · thingD · emE · emE · downF · crownF · sunwoodG · floodG · sideH · tideH · cornI · bornI
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 |
|---|---|---|
| The Weald is good, the Downs are best-- | 8 | ········ |
| I'll give you the run of 'em, East to West. | 10 | ·········· |
| Beachy Head and Winddoor Hill, | 7 | /˘····· |
| They were once and they are still, | 7 | ······· |
| Firle, Mount Caburn and Mount Harry | 9 | ···/˘··/˘ |
| Go back as far as sums'll carry. | 8 | ······/˘ |
| Ditchling Beacon and Chanctonbury Ring, | 10 | ··/˘······ |
| They have looked on many a thing, | 8 | ····/˘·· |
| And what those two have missed between 'em | 9 | ········· |
| I reckon Truleigh Hill has seen 'em. | 9 | ·/˘······ |
| Highden, Bignor and Duncton Down | 8 | ········ |
| Knew Old England before the Crown. | 8 | ··/˘···· |
| Linch Down, Treyford and Sunwood | 7 | ······· |
| Knew Old England before the Flood. | 8 | ··/˘···· |
| And when you end on the Hampshire side-- | 9 | ······/˘· |
| Butser's old as Time and Tide. | 7 | ······· |
| The Downs are sheep, the Weald is corn, | 8 | ········ |
| You be glad you are Sussex born! | 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.