Living

West Sussex Drinking Song

by Hilaire Belloc 1870–1953

From Verses (1916 edition)

LivingNature

They sell good Beer at Haslemere
And under Guildford Hill.
At Little Cowfold as I’ve been told
A beggar may drink his fill:
There is a good brew in Amberley too,
And by the bridge also;
But the swipes they take in at Washington Inn
Is the very best Beer I know.

Chorus

With my here it goes, there it goes,
All the fun’s before us:
The Tipple’s Aboard and the night is young,
The door’s ajar and the Barrel is sprung,
I am singing the best song ever was sung
And it has a rousing chorus.

If I were what I never can be,
The master or the squire:
If you gave me the hundred from here to the sea,
Which is more than I desire:

Then all my crops should be barley and hops,
And did my harvest fail
I’d sell every rood of mine acres I would
For a belly-full of good Ale.

Chorus

With my here it goes, there it goes,
All the fun’s before us:
The Tipple’s aboard and the night is young,
The door’s ajar and the Barrel is sprung,
I am singing the best song ever was sung
And it has a rousing chorus.

✦ ✦ ✦

A drinking song naming good beer at Haslemere, Guildford Hill, Little Cowfold, Amberley and Washington Inn, and ending in a rousing chorus: 'I am singing the best song ever was sung / And it has a rousing chorus.'

MLA

Belloc, Hilaire. “West Sussex Drinking Song.” Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/belloc/12/.

Chicago

Belloc, Hilaire. “West Sussex Drinking Song.” Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/belloc/12/.

Read this poem with the Codex →

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