Fairy Tale
Now folds the Tree of Day its perfect flowers,And every bloom becomes a bud again,Shut and sealed up against the golden showersOf bees that hover in the velvet hours....Now a strainWild and mournful blown from shadow towers,Echoed from shadow ships upon the foam,Proclaims the Queen of Night.From their bowersThe dark Princesses fluttering, wing their flightTo their old Mother, in her huge old home.
Words in this poem
- hover n.
- A cover; a shelter; a protection. Carew. C. Kingsley. [Etymol. doubtful.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Fairy Tale 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, Fairy Tale, in Poems (1923), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #59276, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/mansfield-poems/fairy-tale.html, id L27609.
Form and metre
Fairy Tale is 11 lines in a single stanza. It rhymes ABAABACDADC. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 83%).
See other poems in iambic pentameter.
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 ABAABACDADC flowersA · againB · showersA · hoursA · strainB · towersA · foamC · nightD · bowersA · flightD · homeC
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 pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Now folds the Tree of Day its perfect flowers, | 11 | ·······/·/˘ |
| And every bloom becomes a bud again, | 11 | ·/˘˘·˘/··˘/ |
| Shut and sealed up against the golden showers | 11 | ·······/˘/˘ |
| Of bees that hover in the velvet hours.... | 11 | ···/˘··/˘/˘ |
| Now a strain | 3 | ··· |
| Wild and mournful blown from shadow towers, | 10 | ··/˘··/·/˘ |
| Echoed from shadow ships upon the foam, | 11 | /˘˘·/······ |
| Proclaims the Queen of Night. | 6 | ˘/···· |
| From their bowers | 4 | ··/˘ |
| The dark Princesses fluttering, wing their flight | 11 | ··/˘˘/˘˘··· |
| To their old Mother, in her huge old home. | 10 | ···/˘····· |
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.