Camomile Tea
Outside the sky is light with stars;There’s a hollow roaring from the sea.And, alas! for the little almond flowers,The wind is shaking the almond tree.
How little I thought, a year ago,In that horrible cottage upon the LeeThat he and I should be sitting soAnd sipping a cup of camomile tea.
Light as feathers the witches fly,The horn of the moon is plain to see;By a firefly under a jonquil flowerA goblin toasts a bumble-bee.
We might be fifty, we might be five,So snug, so compact, so wise are we!Under the kitchen-table legMy knee is pressing against his knee.
Our shutters are shut, the fire is low,The tap is dripping peacefully;The saucepan shadows on the wallAre black and round and plain to see.
Words in this poem
- firefly n.
- Any luminous winged insect, esp. luminous beetles of the family Lampyridæ.
- dripping n.
- A falling in drops, or the sound so made.
- saucepan n.
- A small pan with a handle, in which sauce is prepared over a fire; a stewpan.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Camomile Tea 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, Camomile Tea, in Poems (1923), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #59276, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/mansfield-poems/camomile-tea.html, id L27599.
Form and metre
Camomile Tea is 20 lines in 5 stanzas of 4 lines each. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 82%).
See other poems in iambic 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 stars · seaA · flowers · treeA
- 2 ABAB agoA · leeB · soA · teaB
- 3 AA-A flyA · seeA · flower · beeA
- 4 -A-A five · weA · leg · kneeA
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 iambic tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Outside the sky is light with stars; | 8 | //······ |
| There’s a hollow roaring from the sea. | 9 | ··/˘/˘··· |
| And, alas! for the little almond flowers, | 10 | ·˘/··/˘/˘/ |
| The wind is shaking the almond tree. | 9 | ···/˘·/˘· |
| How little I thought, a year ago, | 9 | ·/˘····˘/ |
| In that horrible cottage upon the Lee | 10 | ··/˘/˘···· |
| That he and I should be sitting so | 9 | ······/˘· |
| And sipping a cup of camomile tea. | 11 | ·/˘········ |
| Light as feathers the witches fly, | 8 | ··/˘·/˘· |
| The horn of the moon is plain to see; | 9 | ········· |
| By a firefly under a jonquil flower | 11 | ··/˘······/ |
| A goblin toasts a bumble-bee. | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| We might be fifty, we might be five, | 9 | ···/˘···· |
| So snug, so compact, so wise are we! | 9 | ···/˘···· |
| Under the kitchen-table leg | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| My knee is pressing against his knee. | 9 | ···/˘···· |
| Our shutters are shut, the fire is low, | 9 | //˘···/·· |
| The tap is dripping peacefully; | 8 | ···/˘/˘˘ |
| The saucepan shadows on the wall | 8 | ·/·/···· |
| Are black and round and plain to see. | 8 | ········ |
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.