"The Rolling English Road" is one of the best-known poems by
G. K. Chesterton. It was first published under the title "A Song of Temperance Reform" in the ''New Witness'' in 1913. It was also included in the novel by Chesterton, ''
The Flying Inn'', in 1914.
The poem is written in
heptameter
Heptameter is a type of meter where each line of verse contains seven metrical feet.Harmon, William, and Hugh Holman. ''A Handbook to Literature.'' Eleventh ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson-Prentice Hall, 2009. 264. It was used frequently in Cl ...
s.
Alliteration
Alliteration is the conspicuous repetition of initial consonant sounds of nearby words in a phrase, often used as a literary device. A familiar example is "Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers". Alliteration is used poetically in various ...
is plentiful and "a particularly useful device in the last line of each
stanza
In poetry, a stanza (; from Italian language, Italian ''stanza'' , "room") is a group of lines within a poem, usually set off from others by a blank line or Indentation (typesetting), indentation. Stanzas can have regular rhyme scheme, rhyme and ...
, playfully yoking the far-flung places together (Birmingham/Beachy Head, etc) and reminding us that, like a pub comic, our narrator is, supposedly, improvising his tall story. When he drops the alliterative yoke in the last stanza ("Paradise ... Kensal Green") you know he's being serious."
In the final line of the poem, Kensal Green refers to
Kensal Green Cemetery
Kensal Green Cemetery is a cemetery in the Kensal Green area of Queens Park in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea in London, England. Inspired by Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris, it was founded by the barrister George Frederic ...
in London.
A restaurant in the local area, on Chamberlayne road, uses most of the last stanza, "''Paradise by way of Kensal Green''" as its name.
See also
*
Byway (road)
A byway in the United Kingdom is a track, often rural, which is too minor to be called a road. These routes are often unsurfaced, typically having the appearance of ' green lanes'. Despite this, it is legal (but may not be physically possible) to ...
References
External links
G. K. Chesterton's Works on the Web*
1914 poems
Poems by G. K. Chesterton
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