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Ten Poems from the Countryside
Paperback
Published June 25, 2021
About the author
Seán Hewitt
25 books451 followersSeán Hewitt's debut collection of poetry, Tongues of Fire (2020), won the Laurel Prize in 2021. His memoir, All Down Darkness Wide (2022), won the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature in 2022. He lives in Dublin.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
June 9, 2024
from The Land (by Vita Sackville-West)
The country habit has me by the heart,
For he's bewitched forever who has seen,
Not with his eyes but with his vision, Spring
Flow down the woods and stipple leaves with sun,
As each man knows the life that fits him best,
The shape it makes in his soul, the tune, the tone,
And after ranging on a tentative flight
Stoops like the merlin to the constant lure.
[…]
Loch Long by Ardgartan, Argyll (by Kayo Chingonyi)
[…]
Where the ends of the earth
are the view from a cabin window
and the past is an old song
nobody knows how to sing anymore
and this moment is sudden rain
soaking you through to the skin
I'll meet you.
The country habit has me by the heart,
For he's bewitched forever who has seen,
Not with his eyes but with his vision, Spring
Flow down the woods and stipple leaves with sun,
As each man knows the life that fits him best,
The shape it makes in his soul, the tune, the tone,
And after ranging on a tentative flight
Stoops like the merlin to the constant lure.
[…]
Loch Long by Ardgartan, Argyll (by Kayo Chingonyi)
[…]
Where the ends of the earth
are the view from a cabin window
and the past is an old song
nobody knows how to sing anymore
and this moment is sudden rain
soaking you through to the skin
I'll meet you.
January 9, 2026
Hewitt draws together disparate images of the rural and human experience of it, creating a nuanced collage of the changing faces of the countryside that makes no false pretence of being complete.
This anthology collects nine complete poems and an extract from Vita Sackville-West’s “The Land”, each portraying one or more aspects of the countryside.
“Over the downs the birds flying
Were not so happy as I.”
—“On the South Downs”, Sara Teasdale
Hewitt’s choices reflect both different ideas of what “countryside” means, from natural beauty to place of work, and different emotional responses to it, from lightness to endurance.
“Each day I go to the fields to see what is growing
and what remains to be done.
It is always the same thing: nothing
is growing, everything needs to be done.”
—“The Farmer”, WD Erhart
On the surface, Hewitt seems to contrast the visitor’s viewpoint of the countryside as aesthetic relaxation against the native’s viewpoint of the countryside as effortful labour. However, the gritty description of constant struggle has undercurrents of embracing rather than opposing the wild, and the apparent escapism is salted with implications that the idyll is only a dream.
“Some day, when trees have shed their leaves
And against the morning’s white
The shivering birds beneath the eaves
Have sheltered for the night,…”
—“After the Winter”, Claude McKay
And so the collection weaves a picture of the countryside as something to be loved and endured, something that is both and neither.
“…coy bumbarrels, twenty to a drove,
Flit down the hedgerows in the frozen plain
And hang on little twigs and start again.”
—“Emmonsail’s Heath in Winter”, John Clare
Hewitt presents the reader with beautiful word-pictures that conjure the immense emotional impact of the countryside.
“Where night is a crow
troubling the surface of the water
and the light of morning
is the breadth of a lover’s gaze”
—“Loch Long by Ardgartan, Argyll”, Kayo Chingonyi
But, as with the contrasting perspectives on what the countryside is, also includes work that reveals the words—and thus the images—are not the complex whole.
“If I knew how to fix in even one language
the noise of his wings in flight
I wouldn’t need another single word”
—“An Teach Tuí”, Vona Groarke
Objectively, ten pieces, each no longer than a side, is a short anthology and the reader’s first impression on seeing the book is that it seems only a pamphlet. However, Hewitt’s brevity is deliberate: faced with the vast range of meanings and feelings the countryside might evoke, he chooses to cast a handful before the reader rather than risk the beauty of each poem being choked by a tangle of others.
“all are folded into the dark of the field
and need more days
to paint them, than life gives.”
—“Crossing the field”, Helen Dunmore
The length makes this an anthology that could easily be read in a single sitting if the reader wishes but Hewitt’s skilled ear also makes the selection one that can be enjoyed a poem at a time and then returned to again.
Overall, I enjoyed this anthology greatly. I recommend it to readers seeking poetry that blends language and subject rather than grounding too deeply in description or floating off into mere demonstrations of flair.
This anthology collects nine complete poems and an extract from Vita Sackville-West’s “The Land”, each portraying one or more aspects of the countryside.
“Over the downs the birds flying
Were not so happy as I.”
—“On the South Downs”, Sara Teasdale
Hewitt’s choices reflect both different ideas of what “countryside” means, from natural beauty to place of work, and different emotional responses to it, from lightness to endurance.
“Each day I go to the fields to see what is growing
and what remains to be done.
It is always the same thing: nothing
is growing, everything needs to be done.”
—“The Farmer”, WD Erhart
On the surface, Hewitt seems to contrast the visitor’s viewpoint of the countryside as aesthetic relaxation against the native’s viewpoint of the countryside as effortful labour. However, the gritty description of constant struggle has undercurrents of embracing rather than opposing the wild, and the apparent escapism is salted with implications that the idyll is only a dream.
“Some day, when trees have shed their leaves
And against the morning’s white
The shivering birds beneath the eaves
Have sheltered for the night,…”
—“After the Winter”, Claude McKay
And so the collection weaves a picture of the countryside as something to be loved and endured, something that is both and neither.
“…coy bumbarrels, twenty to a drove,
Flit down the hedgerows in the frozen plain
And hang on little twigs and start again.”
—“Emmonsail’s Heath in Winter”, John Clare
Hewitt presents the reader with beautiful word-pictures that conjure the immense emotional impact of the countryside.
“Where night is a crow
troubling the surface of the water
and the light of morning
is the breadth of a lover’s gaze”
—“Loch Long by Ardgartan, Argyll”, Kayo Chingonyi
But, as with the contrasting perspectives on what the countryside is, also includes work that reveals the words—and thus the images—are not the complex whole.
“If I knew how to fix in even one language
the noise of his wings in flight
I wouldn’t need another single word”
—“An Teach Tuí”, Vona Groarke
Objectively, ten pieces, each no longer than a side, is a short anthology and the reader’s first impression on seeing the book is that it seems only a pamphlet. However, Hewitt’s brevity is deliberate: faced with the vast range of meanings and feelings the countryside might evoke, he chooses to cast a handful before the reader rather than risk the beauty of each poem being choked by a tangle of others.
“all are folded into the dark of the field
and need more days
to paint them, than life gives.”
—“Crossing the field”, Helen Dunmore
The length makes this an anthology that could easily be read in a single sitting if the reader wishes but Hewitt’s skilled ear also makes the selection one that can be enjoyed a poem at a time and then returned to again.
Overall, I enjoyed this anthology greatly. I recommend it to readers seeking poetry that blends language and subject rather than grounding too deeply in description or floating off into mere demonstrations of flair.
March 30, 2024
A lovely collection - 'On The South Downs' by Sara Teasdale is a particular favourite
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February 20, 2025my mum got me this from ireland. the thing with poetry is that i feel i legit need an english teacher in the room with me to explain everything 😭 i need the annotations
June 16, 2025
Delightful Fathers Day gift!
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews