The Pillar Box
The pillar box is fat and red,The pillar box is high;It has the flattest sort of headAnd not a nose or eye,But just one open nigger mouthThat grins when I go by.
The pillar box is very roundBut hungry all the day;Although it doesn’t make a sound,Folks know it wants to say,“Give me some letter sandwichesTo pass the time away.”
“A postage stamp I like to eatOr gummy letterette.”I see the people on the street,If it is fine or wet,Give something to the greedy thing;They never quite forget.
The pillar box is quite a friendWhen Father goes away,My Mother has such lots to send,Fat letters every day,And so I drop them in its mouthWhen I go out to play.
Words in this poem
- nigger n.
- A negro; -- in vulgar derision or depreciation.
- folks n.
- In Anglo-Saxon times, the people of a group of townships or villages; a community; a tribe. [AS. folc; akin to D. volk, OS. & OHG. folk, G. volk, Icel. f, Sw. & Dan. folk, Lith. pulkas crowd, and perh. to E. follow.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Pillar Box 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 Pillar Box, in Poems (1923), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #59276, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/mansfield-poems/the-pillar-box.html, id L27633.
Form and metre
The Pillar Box is 24 lines in 4 stanzas of 6 lines each. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 94%).
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-B redA · highB · headA · eyeB · mouth · byB
- 2 ABAB-B roundA · dayB · soundA · sayB · sandwiches · awayB
- 3 ABAB-B eatA · letteretteB · streetA · wetB · thing · forgetB
- 4 ABAB-B friendA · awayB · sendA · dayB · mouth · playB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| The pillar box is fat and red, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| The pillar box is high; | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| It has the flattest sort of head | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| And not a nose or eye, | 6 | ······ |
| But just one open nigger mouth | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| That grins when I go by. | 6 | ······ |
| The pillar box is very round | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| But hungry all the day; | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| Although it doesn’t make a sound, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Folks know it wants to say, | 6 | ······ |
| “Give me some letter sandwiches | 8 | ···/˘/˘˘ |
| To pass the time away.” | 6 | ····˘/ |
| “A postage stamp I like to eat | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Or gummy letterette.” | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| I see the people on the street, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| If it is fine or wet, | 6 | ······ |
| Give something to the greedy thing; | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| They never quite forget. | 6 | ·/˘·˘/ |
| The pillar box is quite a friend | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| When Father goes away, | 6 | ·/˘·˘/ |
| My Mother has such lots to send, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Fat letters every day, | 7 | ·/˘/˘˘· |
| And so I drop them in its mouth | 8 | ········ |
| When I go out to play. | 6 | ······ |
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.