The Quarrel
We stood in the vegetable gardenAs angry and cross as could be’Cause you said you wouldn’t beg pardonFor eating my radish at tea.
I said, “I shall go an’ tell Mummy.I hope it is makin’ you ill.I hope you’ve a pain in your tummy,And then she will give you a pill.”
But you cried out, “Good-bye then—for ever.Go and play with your silly old toys!If you think you’re so grown up and clever,I’ll run off and play with the Boys.”
Words in this poem
- angry a.
- Troublesome; vexatious; rigorous. [See Anger.]
- 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,]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Quarrel 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 Quarrel, in Poems (1923), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #59276, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/mansfield-poems/the-quarrel-2.html, id L27634.
Form and metre
The Quarrel is 12 lines in 3 stanzas of 4 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABAB. The metre is anapaestic trimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 88%).
See other poems in anapaestic trimeter.
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 gardenA · beB · pardonA · teaB
- 2 ABAB mummyA · illB · tummyA · pillB
- 3 ABAB everA · toysB · cleverA · boysB
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 anapaestic trimeter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| We stood in the vegetable garden | 9 | ····/˘˘/˘ |
| As angry and cross as could be | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| ’Cause you said you wouldn’t beg pardon | 9 | ····/˘·/˘ |
| For eating my radish at tea. | 8 | ·/˘·/˘·· |
| I said, “I shall go an’ tell Mummy. | 9 | ·······/˘ |
| I hope it is makin’ you ill. | 8 | ····/˘·· |
| I hope you’ve a pain in your tummy, | 9 | ·······/˘ |
| And then she will give you a pill.” | 8 | ········ |
| But you cried out, “Good-bye then—for ever. | 9 | ········/ |
| Go and play with your silly old toys! | 9 | ·····/˘·· |
| If you think you’re so grown up and clever, | 10 | ········/˘ |
| I’ll run off and play with the Boys.” | 8 | ········ |
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.