Evening Song of the Thoughtful Child

Katherine Mansfield (1888–1923) · 1923

trochaic tetrameter · ABAB · 36 lines · from Poems

Shadow children, thin and small,Now the day is left behind,You are dancing on the wall,On the curtains, on the blind.

On the ceiling, children, too,Peeping round the nursery door,Let me come and play with you,As we always played before.

Let’s pretend that we have wingsAnd can really truly flyOver every sort of thingsUp and up into the sky,

Where the sweet star children play—It does seem a dreadful rule,They must stay inside all day.I suppose they go to school.

And to-night, dears, do you see,They are having such a raceWith their father moon—the treeAlmost hides his funny face.

Shadow children, once at night,I was all tucked up in bed,Father moon came—such a fright—Through the window poked his head;

I could see his staring eyes,O, my dears, I was afraid,That was not a nice surprise,And the dreadful noise I made!

Let us make a fairy ring,Shadow children, hand in hand,And our songs quite softly singThat we learned in fairyland.

Shadow children, thin and small,See, the day is far behind;And I kiss you—on the wallOn the curtains—on the blind.

Words in this poem

nursery n.: The act of nursing. [Cf. F. nourricerie.]
dreadful a.: Full of dread or terror; fearful.
funny a.: Droll; comical; amusing; laughable. Funny bone. See crazy bone, under Crazy. [From Fun.]
fairyland n.: The imaginary land or abode of fairies.

Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.

About this text

Evening Song of the Thoughtful Child 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, Evening Song of the Thoughtful Child, in Poems (1923), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #59276, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/mansfield-poems/evening-song-of-the-thoughtful-child.html, id L27629.

Form and metre

Evening Song of the Thoughtful Child is 36 lines in 9 stanzas of 4 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABAB. The metre is trochaic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 90%).

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 ABAB small^A · behind^B · wall^A · blind^B
2 ABAB too^A · door^B · you^A · before^B
3 ABAB wings^A · fly^B · things^A · sky^B
4 ABAB play^A · rule^B · day^A · school^B
5 ABAB see^A · race^B · tree^A · face^B
6 ABAB night^A · bed^B · fright^A · head^B
7 ABAB eyes^A · afraid^B · surprise^A · made^B
8 ABAB ring^A · hand^B · sing^A · fairyland^B
9 ABAB small^A · behind^B · wall^A · blind^B

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
Shadow children, thin and small,	7	/·/˘···
Now the day is left behind,	7	·······
You are dancing on the wall,	7	··/˘···
On the curtains, on the blind.	7	··/˘···
On the ceiling, children, too,	7	··/˘/˘·
Peeping round the nursery door,	8	/˘··/˘˘·
Let me come and play with you,	7	·······
As we always played before.	8	··/··˘··
Let’s pretend that we have wings	7	·˘/····
And can really truly fly	7	··/˘/˘·
Over every sort of things	8	··/˘˘···
Up and up into the sky,	7	·······
Where the sweet star children play—	7	····/˘·
It does seem a dreadful rule,	7	····/˘·
They must stay inside all day.	7	···˘/··
I suppose they go to school.	7	·˘/····
And to-night, dears, do you see,	7	·······
They are having such a race	7	··/˘···
With their father moon—the tree	7	··/˘···
Almost hides his funny face.	7	/···/˘·
Shadow children, once at night,	7	/·/˘···
I was all tucked up in bed,	8	····˘···
Father moon came—such a fright—	7	/˘·····
Through the window poked his head;	8	··/˘·˘··
I could see his staring eyes,	7	····/˘·
O, my dears, I was afraid,	7	·····˘/
That was not a nice surprise,	7	·····˘/
And the dreadful noise I made!	7	··/˘···
Let us make a fairy ring,	7	····/˘·
Shadow children, hand in hand,	7	/·/˘···
And our songs quite softly sing	8	·/˘··/˘·
That we learned in fairyland.	8	···˘·/˘·
Shadow children, thin and small,	7	/·/˘···
See, the day is far behind;	7	·······
And I kiss you—on the wall	7	·······
On the curtains—on the blind.	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.

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