A Fine Day
After all the rain, the sunShines on hill and grassy mead;Fly into the garden, child,You are very glad indeed.
For the days have been so dull,Oh, so special dark and drear,That you told me, “Mr. SunHas forgotten we live here.”
Dew upon the lily lawn,Dew upon the garden beds;Daintily from all the leavesPop the little primrose heads.
And the violets in the copseWith their parasols of greenTake a little peek at you;They’re the bluest you have seen.
On the lilac tree a birdSinging first a little note,Then a burst of happy songBubbles in his lifted throat.
O the sun, the comfy sun!This the song that you must sing,“Thank you for the birds, the flowers,Thank you, sun, for everything.”
Words in this poem
- drear n.
- Sadness; dismalness.
- daintily adv.
- In a dainty manner; nicely; scrupulously; fastidiously; deliciously; prettily.
- copse n.
- A wood of small growth; a thicket of brushwood. See Coppice. [Contr. from coppice.]
- peek v. i.
- To look slyly, or with the eyes half closed, or through a crevice; to peep. [OE. piken: cf. F. piquer to pierce, prick, E. pique. Cf. Peak.]
- thank n.
- A expression of gratitude; an acknowledgment expressive of a sense of favor or kindness received; obligation, claim, or desert, or gratitude; -- now generally used in the plural. [AS. Þanc, Þonc, thanks, favor, thought; akin to OS. thank favor, pleasure, thanks, D. & G. dank thanks, Icel. Þ\'94kk, Dan. tak, Sw. tack, Goth. Þagks thanks; -]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
A Fine Day is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #59276; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Katherine Mansfield, A Fine Day, in Poems (1923), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #59276, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/mansfield-poems/a-fine-day.html, id L27628.
Form and metre
A Fine Day is 24 lines in 6 stanzas of 4 lines each. The metre is trochaic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 93%).
See other poems in trochaic tetrameter.
Measured by Laurel's pipeline, not copied from a handbook: how stress and metre are counted, how rhyme is lettered, how a drifted rhyme is found. Where the dictionary cannot confirm a rhyme the letter is withheld, not guessed.
Rhyme words, stanza by stanza
The word that ends each line, lettered by the rhyme it makes; a dash is a line whose rhyme the dictionary could not confirm.
- 1 -A-A sun · meadA · child · indeedA
- 2 -A-A dull · drearA · sun · hereA
- 3 -A-A lawn · bedsA · leaves · headsA
- 4 -A-A copse · greenA · you · seenA
- 5 -A-A bird · noteA · song · throatA
- 6 -A-A sun · singA · flowers · everythingA
Scansion, line by line
Each line with its syllable count and the stresses the words themselves fix: / stressed, ˘ unstressed, · a syllable the word leaves free and the metre decides. Read against trochaic tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| After all the rain, the sun | 7 | ······· |
| Shines on hill and grassy mead; | 7 | ····/˘· |
| Fly into the garden, child, | 7 | ····/˘· |
| You are very glad indeed. | 7 | ··/˘·˘/ |
| For the days have been so dull, | 7 | ······· |
| Oh, so special dark and drear, | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| That you told me, “Mr. Sun | 7 | ····/˘· |
| Has forgotten we live here.” | 7 | ·˘/˘··· |
| Dew upon the lily lawn, | 7 | ····/˘· |
| Dew upon the garden beds; | 7 | ····/˘· |
| Daintily from all the leaves | 7 | /˘˘···· |
| Pop the little primrose heads. | 7 | ··/˘/·· |
| And the violets in the copse | 8 | ··/˘˘··· |
| With their parasols of green | 7 | ······· |
| Take a little peek at you; | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| They’re the bluest you have seen. | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| On the lilac tree a bird | 7 | ··/···· |
| Singing first a little note, | 7 | /˘··/˘· |
| Then a burst of happy song | 7 | ····/˘· |
| Bubbles in his lifted throat. | 7 | /˘··/˘· |
| O the sun, the comfy sun! | 7 | ····/˘· |
| This the song that you must sing, | 7 | ······· |
| “Thank you for the birds, the flowers, | 8 | ······/˘ |
| Thank you, sun, for everything.” | 7 | ····/˘· |
The reader shows the same poem with its rhymes coloured and a stress row above each line, the notes beside their stanzas, and any word's definition on a tap; the analysis page takes the whole book apart. How every part of this site was made.