Song of Karen, the Dancing Child
(O little white feet of mine)Out in the storm and the rain you fly;(Red, red shoes the colour of wine)Can the children hear my cry?
(O little white feet of mine)Never a child in the whole great town;(Red, red shoes the colour of wine)Lights out and the blinds pulled down.
(O little white feet of mine)Never a light on a window pane,(Red, red shoes the colour of wine)And the wild wet cry of the rain.
(O little white feet of mine)Shall I never again be still?(Red, red shoes the colour of wine)And away over valley and hill.
(O little white feet of mine)Children, children, open the door!(Red, red shoes the colour of wine)And the wind shrieks Nevermore.
Words in this poem
- pane n.
- The narrow edge of a hammer head. See Peen. [F. panne.]
- shall v. i.
- To owe; to be under obligation for. [OE. shal, schal, imp. sholde, scholde, AS. scal, sceal, I am obliged, imp. scolde, sceolde, inf. sculan; akin to OS. skulan, pres. skal, imp. skolda, D. zullen,]
- nevermore adv.
- Never again; at no time hereafter. Testament of Love. Tyndale.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Song of Karen, the Dancing 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, Song of Karen, the Dancing Child, in Poems (1923), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #59276, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/mansfield-poems/song-of-karen-the-dancing-child.html, id L27617.
Form and metre
Song of Karen, the Dancing Child is 20 lines in 5 stanzas of 4 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABAB. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 75%).
See other poems in iambic 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 mineA · flyB · wineA · cryB
- 2 ABAB mineA · townB · wineA · downB
- 3 ABAB mineA · paneB · wineA · rainB
- 4 ABAB mineA · stillB · wineA · hillB
- 5 ABAB mineA · doorB · wineA · nevermoreB
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 tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| (O little white feet of mine) | 7 | ·/˘···· |
| Out in the storm and the rain you fly; | 9 | ········· |
| (Red, red shoes the colour of wine) | 8 | ····/˘·· |
| Can the children hear my cry? | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| (O little white feet of mine) | 7 | ·/˘···· |
| Never a child in the whole great town; | 8 | /······· |
| (Red, red shoes the colour of wine) | 8 | ····/˘·· |
| Lights out and the blinds pulled down. | 8 | ······˘· |
| (O little white feet of mine) | 7 | ·/˘···· |
| Never a light on a window pane, | 8 | /····/˘· |
| (Red, red shoes the colour of wine) | 8 | ····/˘·· |
| And the wild wet cry of the rain. | 8 | ········ |
| (O little white feet of mine) | 7 | ·/˘···· |
| Shall I never again be still? | 8 | ··/˘˘/·· |
| (Red, red shoes the colour of wine) | 8 | ····/˘·· |
| And away over valley and hill. | 8 | ·˘/·/˘·· |
| (O little white feet of mine) | 7 | ·/˘···· |
| Children, children, open the door! | 8 | /˘/˘/˘·· |
| (Red, red shoes the colour of wine) | 8 | ····/˘·· |
| And the wind shrieks Nevermore. | 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.