A Lay of the Links

A Lay of the Links

Original Text
The Poems of Arthur Conan Doyle (1922; John Murray, 1928): 32-33. 21473.35.1 Widener Library Harvard University
1It's up and away from our work to-day,
2    For the breeze sweeps over the down;
3And it's hey for a game where the gorse blossoms flame,
4    And the bracken is bronzing to brown.
5With the turf 'neath our tread and the blue overhead,
6    And the song of the lark in the whin;
7There's the flag and the green, with the bunkers between --
8    Now will you be over or in?
9The doctor may come, and we'll teach him to know
10    A tee where no tannin can lurk;
11The soldier may come, and we'll promise to show
12    Some hazards a soldier may shirk;
13The statesman may joke, as he tops every stroke,
14    That at last he is high in his aims;
15And the clubman will stand with a club in his hand
16    That is worth every club in St. James'.
17The palm and the leather come rarely together,
18    Gripping the driver's haft,
19And it's good to feel the jar of the steel
20    And the spring of the hickory shaft.
21Why trouble or seek for the praise of a clique?
22    A cleek here is common to all;
23And the lie that might sting is a very small thing
24    When compared with the lie of the ball.
25Come youth and come age, from the study or stage,
26    From Bar or from Bench -- high and low!
27A green you must use as a cure for the blues --
28    You drive them away as you go.
29We're outward bound on a long, long round,
30    And it's time to be up and away:
31If worry and sorrow come back with the morrow,
32    At least we'll be happy to-day.

Notes

2] down: rolling upland. Back to Line
3] gorse: a prickly shrub. Back to Line
4] bracken: fern. Back to Line
6] whin: gorse. Back to Line
8] be over or in: overshoot the green, or land in the hole. Back to Line
10] tannin: a pun -- untannined tea is green tea, tea without the slightly astringent tannin taste characteristic of black tea. Back to Line
12] hazards: in golf, sand bunkers, ponds, ditches, etc. Back to Line
13] tops every stroke: a topped stroke hits high on the ball and sends it skittering along the ground. Back to Line
16] St. James': a district in London renowned for its gentleman's clubs such as Brook's and the Carleton. Back to Line
17] the palm of the hand, and the leather of the golf-club's grip. Back to Line
18] driver's haft: the upper shaft of the wood-faced club for striking the ball long off the tee. Back to Line
20] hickory: a springy wood used before steel-shafted clubs. Back to Line
21] a clique: an in-crowd. Back to Line
22] cleek: mid-iron. Back to Line
24] lie: how the ball rests … good, as resting on top of the cropped grass; bad, as in a divot or beside a thick root. Back to Line
Publication Notes
Songs of Action (London: Smith, Elder, 1898). See Harold Locke, A Bibliographical Catalogue of the Writings of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (Tunbridge Wells: D. Webster, 1928): 48.
RPO poem Editors
Ian Lancashire
RPO Edition
2005
Rhyme
abcbdefe