Villa Pauline
But, ah! before he cameYou were only a name:Four little rooms and a cupboardWithout a bone,And I was alone!Now with your windows wideEverything from outsideOf sun and flower and lovelinessComes in to hide,To play, to laugh on the stairs,To catch unawaresOur childish happiness,And to glideThrough the four little rooms on tip-toeWith lifted finger,Pretending we shall not knowWhen the shutters are shutThat they still lingerLong, long after.Lying close in the darkHe says to me: “Hark,Isn’t that laughter?”
Words in this poem
- loveliness n.
- The state or quality of being lovely. [From Lovely.]
- 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
Villa Pauline 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, Villa Pauline, in Poems (1923), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #59276, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/mansfield-poems/villa-pauline.html, id L27598.
Form and metre
Villa Pauline is 22 lines in a single stanza. The metre is trochaic trimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 75%).
See other poems in trochaic 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 AABCCBBDBEEDBFGF-GHIIH cameA · nameA · cupboardB · boneC · aloneC · wideB · outsideB · lovelinessD · hideB · stairsE · unawaresE · happinessD · glideB · toeF · fingerG · knowF · shut · lingerG · afterH · darkI · harkI · laughterH
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 trochaic trimeter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| But, ah! before he came | 6 | ······ |
| You were only a name: | 6 | ··/˘·· |
| Four little rooms and a cupboard | 8 | ·/˘···/˘ |
| Without a bone, | 4 | ···· |
| And I was alone! | 5 | ···˘/ |
| Now with your windows wide | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Everything from outside | 6 | /˘··// |
| Of sun and flower and loveliness | 9 | ···/˘·/˘˘ |
| Comes in to hide, | 4 | ···· |
| To play, to laugh on the stairs, | 7 | ······· |
| To catch unawares | 5 | ···˘/ |
| Our childish happiness, | 7 | /˘/˘/˘˘ |
| And to glide | 3 | ··· |
| Through the four little rooms on tip-toe | 9 | ···/˘···· |
| With lifted finger, | 5 | ·/˘/˘ |
| Pretending we shall not know | 7 | ˘/˘···· |
| When the shutters are shut | 6 | ··/˘·· |
| That they still linger | 5 | ···/˘ |
| Long, long after. | 4 | ···· |
| Lying close in the dark | 6 | /˘···· |
| He says to me: “Hark, | 5 | ····· |
| Isn’t that laughter?” | 5 | ˘˘·/˘ |
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.