The Quarrel
Our quarrel seemed a giant thing,It made the room feel mean and small,The books, the lamp, the furniture,The very pictures on the wall—
Crowded upon us as we satPale and terrified, face to face.“Why do you stay?” she said, “my roomCan never be your resting place.”
“Katinka, ere we part for life,I pray you walk once more with me.”So down the dark, familiar roadWe paced together, silently.
The sky—it seemed on fire with stars!I said:—“Katinka dear, look up!”Like thirsty children, both of usDrank from that giant loving cup.
“Who were those dolls?” Katinka said.“What were their stupid, vague alarms?”And suddenly we turned and laughedAnd rushed into each other’s arms.
Words in this poem
- drank n.
- Wild oats, or darnel grass. See Drake a plant. [Cf. 3d Drake.]
- rushed a.
- Abounding or covered with rushes.
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.html, id L27578.
Form and metre
The Quarrel is 20 lines in 5 stanzas of 4 lines each. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 91%).
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 -A-A thing · smallA · furniture · wallA
- 2 -A-A sat · faceA · room · placeA
- 4 -A-A stars · upA · us · cupA
- 5 -A-A said · alarmsA · laughed · armsA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Our quarrel seemed a giant thing, | 8 | //˘··/˘· |
| It made the room feel mean and small, | 8 | ········ |
| The books, the lamp, the furniture, | 8 | ·····/˘˘ |
| The very pictures on the wall— | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| Crowded upon us as we sat | 8 | /˘······ |
| Pale and terrified, face to face. | 8 | ··/˘···· |
| “Why do you stay?” she said, “my room | 8 | ········ |
| Can never be your resting place.” | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| “Katinka, ere we part for life, | 8 | ········ |
| I pray you walk once more with me.” | 8 | ········ |
| So down the dark, familiar road | 8 | ····˘/˘· |
| We paced together, silently. | 8 | ··˘/˘/˘˘ |
| The sky—it seemed on fire with stars! | 8 | ·····/·· |
| I said:—“Katinka dear, look up!” | 8 | ········ |
| Like thirsty children, both of us | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| Drank from that giant loving cup. | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| “Who were those dolls?” Katinka said. | 8 | ········ |
| “What were their stupid, vague alarms?” | 8 | ···/˘·˘/ |
| And suddenly we turned and laughed | 8 | ·/˘˘···· |
| And rushed into each other’s arms. | 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.