Jangling Memory
Heavens above! here’s an old tie of yours—Sea-green dragons stamped on a golden ground.Ha! Ha! Ha! What children we were in those days.
Do you love me enough to wear it now?Have you the courage of your pristine glories?Ha! Ha! Ha! You laugh and shrug your shoulders.
Those were the days when a new tie spelt a fortune:We wore it in turn—I flaunted it as a waist-belt.Ha! Ha! Ha! What easily satisfied babies.
“I think I’ll turn it into a piano duster.”“Give it to me, I’ll polish my slippers on it!”Ha! Ha! Ha! The rag’s not worth the dustbin.
“Throw the shabby old thing right out of the window;Fling it into the faces of other children!”Ha! Ha! Ha! We laughed and laughed till the tears came!
Words in this poem
- shrug v. t.
- To draw up or contract (the shoulders), especially by way of expressing dislike, dread, doubt, or the like. [Probably akin to shrink, p. p. shrunk; cf. Dan. skrugge, skrukke, to stoop, dial. Sw. skrukka, skruga, to crouch.]
- duster n.
- One who, or that which, dusts; a utensil that frees from dust.
- shabby a.
- Torn or worn to rage; poor; mean; ragged. [See Shab, n., Scabby, and Scab.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Jangling Memory 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, Jangling Memory, in Poems (1923), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #59276, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/mansfield-poems/jangling-memory.html, id L27591.
Form and metre
Jangling Memory is 15 lines in 5 stanzas of 3 lines each. The metre is trochaic hexameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 76%).
See other poems in trochaic hexameter.
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.
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 hexameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Heavens above! here’s an old tie of yours— | 10 | /˘········ |
| Sea-green dragons stamped on a golden ground. | 10 | ··/˘···/˘· |
| Ha! Ha! Ha! What children we were in those days. | 11 | ····/˘····· |
| Do you love me enough to wear it now? | 10 | ····˘/···· |
| Have you the courage of your pristine glories? | 11 | ···/˘··/˘/˘ |
| Ha! Ha! Ha! You laugh and shrug your shoulders. | 10 | ········/˘ |
| Those were the days when a new tie spelt a fortune: | 12 | ··········/˘ |
| We wore it in turn—I flaunted it as a waist-belt. | 13 | ······/˘····· |
| Ha! Ha! Ha! What easily satisfied babies. | 11 | ····/˘/˘·/˘ |
| “I think I’ll turn it into a piano duster.” | 13 | ········˘/˘/˘ |
| “Give it to me, I’ll polish my slippers on it!” | 12 | ·····/˘·/˘·· |
| Ha! Ha! Ha! The rag’s not worth the dustbin. | 10 | ········/˘ |
| “Throw the shabby old thing right out of the window; | 12 | ··/˘······/˘ |
| Fling it into the faces of other children!” | 12 | ·····/˘·/˘/˘ |
| Ha! Ha! Ha! We laughed and laughed till the tears came! | 11 | ··········· |
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.