Poem by Hilaire Belloc

The South Country

When I am living in the Midlands
 That are sodden and unkind,
I light my lamp in the evening:
 My work is left behind;
And the great hills of the South Country
 Come back into my mind.

The great hills of the South Country
 They stand along the sea;
And it’s there walking in the high woods
 That I could wish to be,
And the men that were boys when I was a boy
 Walking along with me.

The men that live in North England
 I saw them for a day:
Their hearts are set upon the waste fells,
 Their skies are fast and grey;
From their castle-walls a man may see
 The mountains far away.

The men that live in West England
 They see the Severn strong,
A-rolling on rough water brown
 Light aspen leaves along.
They have the secret of the Rocks,
 And the oldest kind of song.

But the men that live in the South Country
 Are the kindest and most wise,
They get their laughter from the loud surf,
 And the faith in their happy eyes
Comes surely from our Sister the Spring
 When over the sea she flies;
The violets suddenly bloom at her feet,
 She blesses us with surprise.

I never get between the pines
 But I smell the Sussex air;
Nor I never come on a belt of sand
 But my home is there.
And along the sky the line of the Downs
 So noble and so bare.

A lost thing could I never find,
 Nor a broken thing mend:
And I fear I shall be all alone
 When I get towards the end.
Who will there be to comfort me
 Or who will be my friend?

I will gather and carefully make my friends
 Of the men of the Sussex Weald;
They watch the stars from silent folds,
 They stiffly plough the field.
By them and the God of the South Country
 My poor soul shall be healed.

If I ever become a rich man,
 Or if ever I grow to be old,
I will build a house with deep thatch
 To shelter me from the cold,
And there shall the Sussex songs be sung
 And the story of Sussex told.

I will hold my house in the high wood
 Within a walk of the sea,
And the men that were boys when I was a boy
 Shall sit and drink with me.

1. Noël
2. To Dives
3. Stanzas Written on Battersea Bridge during a South-Westerly Gale
4. In a Boat
5. Courtesy

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