When Westwall Downes by Sir William Strode

Song Meaning

The poem opens with a pastoral scene on Westwell Downs, a landscape characterized by its sweeping green and scattered sheep. The narrator observes the undulating earth, noting how its "pleated wrinkles" create shadows that are both deceptive and pleasing to the eye. This initial imagery establishes a sense of quiet observation and a slightly idealized view of nature, where even the earth's contours possess a certain grace. The focus then shifts to the sheep and their movements, which the narrator likens to a "Fairie ring." The patterns they create, described as "semicircles" and "lynes acrosse so trymly spunne," are so precise that they suggest a hidden "Geometry." This elevates the sheep's simple grazing into something almost mathematical and magical, hinting at an underlying order within the seemingly random movements of nature. A striking turn occurs with the description of the down's "slender food," which remains perpetually bare and unchanging, unaffected by seasons. This barrenness is then compared to a "barren Eunuches chynne," a stark and unusual image that emphasizes a lack of growth or potential. The comparison suggests a theme of sterility or arrested development, a sharp contrast to the potentially fertile landscape initially presented. Finally, the narrator finds a more intimate landscape in two "hilly crests" that cradle a "pleasant greene," explicitly compared to "twoe swelling breasts." This imagery shifts from the abstract geometry of sheep paths to a more sensual and human-like form. The desire to linger in this space is interrupted by a sheep-bell, which, like "Oxford colledge bells," calls the narrator away, grounding the contemplative mood with a more mundane, perhaps even academic, obligation.