The Awakening River
The gulls are mad-in-love with the river,And the river unveils her face and smiles.In her sleep-brooding eyes they mirror their shining wings.She lies on silver pillows: the sun leans over her.He warms and warms her, he kisses and kisses her.There are sparks in her hair and she stirs in laughter.Be careful, my beautiful waking one! you will catch on fire.Wheeling and flying with the foam of the sea on their breasts,The ineffable mists of the sea clinging to their wild wings,Crying the rapture of the boundless ocean,The gulls are mad-in-love with the river.Wake! we are the dream thoughts flying from your heart.Wake! we are the songs of desire flowing from your bosom.O, I think the sun will lend her his great wingsAnd the river will fly away to the sea with the mad-in-love birds.
Words in this poem
- wheeling n.
- The act of conveying anything, or traveling, on wheels, or in a wheeled vehicle.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Awakening River 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 Awakening River, in Poems (1923), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #59276, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/mansfield-poems/the-awakening-river.html, id L27585.
Form and metre
The Awakening River is 15 lines in a single stanza.
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-BCC---B-A--B- riverA · smiles · wingsB · herC · herC · laughter · fire · breasts · wingsB · ocean · riverA · heart · bosom · wingsB · birds
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 |
|---|---|---|
| The gulls are mad-in-love with the river, | 10 | ········/˘ |
| And the river unveils her face and smiles. | 10 | ··/˘˘/···· |
| In her sleep-brooding eyes they mirror their shining wings. | 13 | ···/˘··/˘·/˘· |
| She lies on silver pillows: the sun leans over her. | 12 | ···/˘/˘····· |
| He warms and warms her, he kisses and kisses her. | 12 | ······/˘·/˘· |
| There are sparks in her hair and she stirs in laughter. | 12 | ··········/˘ |
| Be careful, my beautiful waking one! you will catch on fire. | 14 | ·/˘·/˘/˘·····/ |
| Wheeling and flying with the foam of the sea on their breasts, | 14 | /˘·/˘········· |
| The ineffable mists of the sea clinging to their wild wings, | 14 | ·˘/˘····/˘···· |
| Crying the rapture of the boundless ocean, | 10 | /˘·/˘··/˘/ |
| The gulls are mad-in-love with the river. | 10 | ········/˘ |
| Wake! we are the dream thoughts flying from your heart. | 11 | ······/˘··· |
| Wake! we are the songs of desire flowing from your bosom. | 13 | ······˘//··/˘ |
| O, I think the sun will lend her his great wings | 11 | ··········· |
| And the river will fly away to the sea with the mad-in-love birds. | 17 | ··/˘··˘/········· |
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.