On a Young Lady’s Sixth Anniversary
Baby Babbles—only one,Now to sit up has begun.
Little Babbles quite turned twoWalks as well as I and you.
And Miss Babbles one, two, threeHas a teaspoon at her tea.
But her Highness at fourLearns to open the front door.
And her Majesty—now six,Can her shoestring neatly fix.
Babbles, Babbles, have a care,You will soon put up your hair!
Words in this poem
- teaspoon n.
- A small spoon used in stirring and sipping tea, coffee, etc., and for other purposes.
- highness n.
- The state of being high; elevation; loftiness. [AS. heáhnes.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
On a Young Lady’s Sixth Anniversary 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, On a Young Lady’s Sixth Anniversary, in Poems (1923), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #59276, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/mansfield-poems/on-a-young-lady-s-sixth-anniversary.html, id L27623.
Form and metre
On a Young Lady’s Sixth Anniversary is 12 lines in 6 stanzas of 2 lines each. It is in rhyming couplets. The metre is trochaic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 87%).
See other poems in rhyming couplets, 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 AA oneA · begunA
- 2 AA twoA · youA
- 3 AA threeA · teaA
- 4 AA fourA · doorA
- 5 AA sixA · fixA
- 6 AA careA · hairA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Baby Babbles—only one, | 7 | /˘/˘/˘· |
| Now to sit up has begun. | 7 | ·····˘/ |
| Little Babbles quite turned two | 8 | /˘/˘··˘· |
| Walks as well as I and you. | 7 | ······· |
| And Miss Babbles one, two, three | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Has a teaspoon at her tea. | 7 | ··/···· |
| But her Highness at four | 6 | ··/˘·· |
| Learns to open the front door. | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| And her Majesty—now six, | 7 | ··/˘˘·· |
| Can her shoestring neatly fix. | 7 | ··/·/˘· |
| Babbles, Babbles, have a care, | 7 | /˘/˘··· |
| You will soon put up your hair! | 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.