The Arabian Shawl
“It is cold outside, you will need a coat—What! this old Arabian shawl!Bind it about your head and throat,These steps ... it is dark ... my hand ... you might fall.”
What has happened? What strange, sweet charmLingers about the Arabian shawl ...Do not tremble so! There can be no harmIn just remembering—that is all.
“I love you so—I will be your wife,”Here, in the dark of the Terrace wall,Say it again. Let that other lifeFold us like the Arabian shawl.
“Do you remember?” ... “I quite forget,Some childish foolishness, that is all,To-night is the first time we have met ...Let me take off my Arabian shawl!”
Words in this poem
- foolishness n.
- The quality of being foolish.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Arabian Shawl 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, The Arabian Shawl, in Poems (1923), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #59276, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/mansfield-poems/the-arabian-shawl.html, id L27576.
Form and metre
The Arabian Shawl is 16 lines in 4 stanzas of 4 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABAB.
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 coatA · shawlB · throatA · fallB
- 2 ABAB charmA · shawlB · harmA · allB
- 3 ABAB wifeA · wallB · lifeA · shawlB
- 4 ABAB forgetA · allB · metA · shawlB
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. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| “It is cold outside, you will need a coat— | 10 | ···//····· |
| What! this old Arabian shawl! | 8 | ···˘/˘˘· |
| Bind it about your head and throat, | 8 | ········ |
| These steps ... it is dark ... my hand ... you might fall.” | 10 | ·········· |
| What has happened? What strange, sweet charm | 8 | ··/˘···· |
| Lingers about the Arabian shawl ... | 9 | /˘···˘/˘· |
| Do not tremble so! There can be no harm | 10 | ··/˘······ |
| In just remembering—that is all. | 8 | ··˘/˘··· |
| “I love you so—I will be your wife,” | 9 | ········· |
| Here, in the dark of the Terrace wall, | 9 | ······/˘· |
| Say it again. Let that other life | 9 | ··˘/··/˘· |
| Fold us like the Arabian shawl. | 8 | ····˘/˘· |
| “Do you remember?” ... “I quite forget, | 9 | ··˘/˘··˘/ |
| Some childish foolishness, that is all, | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| To-night is the first time we have met ... | 9 | ········· |
| Let me take off my Arabian shawl!” | 9 | ·····˘/˘· |
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.