Publication
Recorded in ORG as verse 1144, first appeared as the Prologue to the illustrated book Sea and Sussex (Macmillan, London, Jan 1926) and collected in Inclusive Verse (1933) l and later collections with the title “Very Many People”.
The poem
A lament for the impact of modernity on the ancient landscape of Sussex, which was deeply loved by Kipling as a sacred place in the heart of Old England, where he had made his home for a quarter of a century.
See also “Puck’s Song”, “Sussex”, and “Dymchurch Flit!”
Notes on the text
[Verse 1]
the Weald the forest land between the North Downs and South Downs in Kent and Sussex. Kipling’s house, Bateman’s, lay in the Weald, one of the first areas in England where iron was smelted.
[Verse3]
oast an oast house was a large kiln for drying hops. There is one at Bateman’s. See “Dymchurch Flit” in Rewards and Fairies.
dew-ponds ponds dug out on the high chalk downs (where there are few streams) to catch the dew.
[Verse 6]
the Marshes Kipling was thinking of Romney Marsh, the strange low-lying marshy area beyond Rye. See “Dymchursh Flit”.
Also see “Sussex”.
[J.R.]