Grown-Up Talk
Half-Past-Six and I were talkingIn a very grown-up way;We had got so tired with runningThat we did not want to play.
“How do babies come, I wonder,”He said, looking at the sky,“Does God mix the things togetherAn’ just make it—like a pie?”
I was really not quite certain,But it sounded very nice;It was all that we could think of,Besides a book said ‘sugar and spice.’
Half-Past-Six said—he’s so clever—Cleverer than me, I mean ...“I suppose God makes the black onesWhen the saucepan isn’t clean.”
Words in this poem
- 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
Grown-Up Talk 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, Grown-Up Talk, in Poems (1923), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #59276, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/mansfield-poems/grown-up-talk.html, id L27635.
Form and metre
Grown-Up Talk is 16 lines in 4 stanzas of 4 lines each. The metre is trochaic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 86%).
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 talking · wayA · running · playA
- 2 -A-A wonder · skyA · together · pieA
- 3 -A-A certain · niceA · of · spiceA
- 4 -A-A clever · meanA · ones · cleanA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Half-Past-Six and I were talking | 8 | ······/˘ |
| In a very grown-up way; | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| We had got so tired with running | 9 | ····/˘·/˘ |
| That we did not want to play. | 7 | ······· |
| “How do babies come, I wonder,” | 8 | ··/˘··/˘ |
| He said, looking at the sky, | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| “Does God mix the things together | 8 | ·····˘/˘ |
| An’ just make it—like a pie?” | 7 | ······· |
| I was really not quite certain, | 8 | ··/˘··/˘ |
| But it sounded very nice; | 7 | ··/˘/˘· |
| It was all that we could think of, | 8 | ········ |
| Besides a book said ‘sugar and spice.’ | 9 | ˘/···/˘·· |
| Half-Past-Six said—he’s so clever— | 8 | ······/˘ |
| Cleverer than me, I mean ... | 7 | ······· |
| “I suppose God makes the black ones | 8 | ·˘/····· |
| When the saucepan isn’t clean.” | 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.