Copy Book Archive

‘Sussex’ A meditation on our instinctive love for the place in which we live.
1903
Music: George Butterworth

© Janet Richardson, Geograph. Licence: CC BY-SA 2.0. Source

About this picture …

Hope Gap at Seaford in East Sussex, with the ‘Seven Sisters’ in the distance.

‘Sussex’
This is just part of a rather longer poem in which Kipling explores the fundamental truth that no mere human can really love everyone and everything equally. That, he says, is why it is both necessary and right that we feel particularly bound to, and responsible for, the place we call home.

GOD gave all men all earth to love,
But since our hearts are small,
Ordained for each one spot should prove
Belovèd over all;
That, as He watched Creation’s birth,
So we, in godlike mood,
May of our love create our earth
And see that it is good.

So to the land our hearts we give
Till the sure magic strike,
And Memory, Use, and Love make live
Us and our fields alike —
That deeper than our speech and thought,
Beyond our reason’s sway,
Clay of the pit whence we were wrought
Yearns to its fellow-clay.

God gives all men all earth to love,
But since man’s heart is small,
Ordains for each one spot shall prove
Beloved over all.
Each to his choice, and I rejoice
The lot has fallen to me
In a fair ground — in a fair ground —
Yea, Sussex by the sea!

Précis

In this poem, Kipling (more usually associated with India) writes about his home in Sussex. He says that no mere mortal can love everywhere and all people equally, and that each of us is therefore called to be a steward of one particular place, in our own small way cherishing and stewarding it as God does the whole world. (59 / 60 words)

Source

‘Sussex’, by Rudyard Kipling.

Suggested Music

Two English Idylls No. 1

George Butterworth (1885-1916)

Performed by English String Orchestra, conducted by William Boughton.

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How To Use This Passage

You can use this passage to help improve your command of English.

IRead it aloud, twice or more. IISummarise it in one sentence of up to 30 words. IIISummarise it in one paragraph of 40-80 words. IVMake notes on the passage, and reconstruct the original from them later on. VJot down any unfamiliar words, and make your own sentences with them later. VIMake a note of any words that surprise or impress you, and ask yourself what meaning they add to the words you would have expected to see. VIITurn any old-fashioned English into modern English. VIIITurn prose into verse, and verse into prose. IXAsk yourself what the author is trying to get you to feel or think. XHow would an artist or a photographer capture the scene? XIHow would a movie director shoot it, or a composer write incidental music for it?

For these and more ideas, see How to Use The Copy Book.

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