Countrywomen
These be twoCountry women.What a size!Grand big armsAnd round red faces;Big substantialSit down places;Great big bosoms firm as cheeseBursting through their country jackets;Wide big lapsAnd sturdy knees;Hands outspread,Round and rosy,Hands to holdA country posyOr a baby or a lamb—And such eyes!Stupid, shifty, small and slyPeeping through a slit of sty,Squinting through their neighbours’ plackets.
Words in this poem
- outspread v. t.
- To spread out; to expand; -- usually as a past part. or adj.
- posy n.
- A brief poetical sentiment; hence, any brief sentiment, motto, or legend; especially, one inscribed on a ring. [Contr. fr. poesy.]
- shifty a.
- Full of, or ready with, shifts; fertile in expedients or contrivance. Wright.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Countrywomen 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, Countrywomen, in Poems (1923), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #59276, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/mansfield-poems/countrywomen.html, id L27595.
Form and metre
Countrywomen is 20 lines in a single stanza. The metre is trochaic dimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 92%).
See other poems in trochaic dimeter.
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-B-BC--C-D-D-AEE- two · women · sizeA · arms · facesB · substantial · placesB · cheeseC · jackets · laps · kneesC · outspread · rosyD · hold · posyD · lamb · eyesA · slyE · styE · plackets
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 dimeter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| These be two | 3 | ··· |
| Country women. | 4 | /˘/˘ |
| What a size! | 3 | ··· |
| Grand big arms | 3 | ··· |
| And round red faces; | 5 | ···/˘ |
| Big substantial | 4 | ·˘/˘ |
| Sit down places; | 4 | ··/˘ |
| Great big bosoms firm as cheese | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Bursting through their country jackets; | 8 | /˘··/˘/˘ |
| Wide big laps | 3 | ··· |
| And sturdy knees; | 4 | ·/˘· |
| Hands outspread, | 3 | ·˘/ |
| Round and rosy, | 4 | ··/˘ |
| Hands to hold | 3 | ··· |
| A country posy | 5 | ·/˘/˘ |
| Or a baby or a lamb— | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| And such eyes! | 3 | ··· |
| Stupid, shifty, small and sly | 7 | /˘/˘··· |
| Peeping through a slit of sty, | 7 | /˘····· |
| Squinting through their neighbours’ plackets. | 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.