Devon
Deep-wooded combes, clear-mounded hills of morn,Red sunset tides against a red sea-wall,High lonely barrows where the curlews call,Far moors that echo to the ringing horn,--Devon! thou spirit of all these beauties born,All these are thine, but thou art more than all:Speech can but tell thy name, praise can but fallBeneath the cold white sea-mist of thy scorn.
Yet, yet, O noble land, forbid us notEven now to join our faint memorial chimeTo the fierce chant wherewith their hearts were hotWho took the tide in thy Imperial prime;Whose glory's thine till Glory sleeps forgotWith her ancestral phantoms, Pride and Time.
Words in this poem
- morn n.
- The first part of the day; the morning; -- used chiefly in poetry. [OE. morwen, morgen, AS. morgen; akin to D. morgen, OS. morgan, G. morgen, Icel. morginn, morgunn, Sw. morgon, Dan. morgen, Goth. maúrgins. Cf. Morrow, Morning.]
- chime n.
- The harmonious sound of bells, or of musical instruments. [OE. chimbe, prop., cymbal, OF. cymbe, cymble, in a dialectic form, chymble, F. cymbale, L. cymbalum, fr. Gr. Cymbal.]
- wherewith adv.
- With which; -- used relatively.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Devon is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems: New and Old, Project Gutenberg ebook #24405; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Henry John Newbolt, Devon, in Poems: New and Old (1912), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #24405, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/newbolt-poems/devon.html, id L11449.
Form and metre
Devon is 14 lines in 2 stanzas. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 85%). 94% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.0 syllables. 36% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
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 ABBAABBA mornA · wallB · callB · hornA · bornA · allB · fallB · scornA
- 2 ABABAB notA · chimeB · hotA · primeB · forgotA · timeB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Deep-wooded combes, clear-mounded hills of morn, | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| Red sunset tides against a red sea-wall, | 10 | ·/········ |
| High lonely barrows where the curlews call, | 10 | ·/˘/˘····· |
| Far moors that echo to the ringing horn,-- | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| Devon! thou spirit of all these beauties born, | 10 | /˘·/···/˘· |
| All these are thine, but thou art more than all: | 10 | ·········· |
| Speech can but tell thy name, praise can but fall | 10 | ·········· |
| Beneath the cold white sea-mist of thy scorn. | 10 | ·········· |
| Yet, yet, O noble land, forbid us not | 10 | ···/˘·˘/·· |
| Even now to join our faint memorial chime | 10 | /···/·˘/˘· |
| To the fierce chant wherewith their hearts were hot | 10 | ····˘/···· |
| Who took the tide in thy Imperial prime; | 10 | ······˘/˘· |
| Whose glory's thine till Glory sleeps forgot | 10 | ·/˘··/˘·˘/ |
| With her ancestral phantoms, Pride and Time. | 10 | ··˘/˘/˘··· |
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.