The Land

The Land is a book-length narrative poem by Vita Sackville-West. Published in 1926 by William Heinemann it is a Georgic celebration of the rural landscape traditions and history of the Kentish Weald where Sackville-West lived. The poem adopts the traditional Georgic structure of the four seasons and is divided into four parts running from Winter to Autumn and documenting the agricultural traditions and changing landscape through the year. The poem’s intention to capture the natural processes that exist outside of history are made clear in the opening lines: I sing the cycle of my country’s year I sing the tillage and the reaping sing Classic monotony that modes and wars Leave undisturbed unbettered for their best Was born immediate of expediency. The poems were popular enough for there to be six print runs in the first three years of its publication aided in part by its winning the Hawthornden Prize for Literature.