Analysis of There was a Child Once
Katherine Mansfield 1888 (Wellington) – 1923 (Fontainebleau, Île-de-France)
There was a child once.
He came to play in my garden;
He was quite pale and silent.
Only when he smiled I knew everything about him,
I knew what he had in his pockets,
And I knew the feel of his hands in my hands
And the most intimate tones of his voice.
I led him down each secret path,
Showing him the hiding-place of all my treasures.
I let him play with them, every one,
I put my singing thoughts in a little silver cage
And gave them to him to keep...
It was very dark in the garden
But never dark enough for us. On tiptoe we walked
among the deepest shades;
We bathed in the shadow pools beneath the trees,
Pretending we were under the sea.
Once--near the boundary of the garden--
We heard steps passing along the World-road;
O how frightened we were!
I whispered: "Have you ever walked along that road?"
He nodded, and we shook the tears from our eyes....
There was a child once.
He came--quite alone--to play in my garden;
He was pale and silent.
When we met we kissed each other,
But when he went away, we did not even wave
Scheme | Abcxxxxxxbxxbxxxxbdedx Abcex |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 11011 11110110 1111010 101111110011 111110110 01101111011 0011001111 11111101 101010111110 1111111001 1111010010101 0111111 111010010 110101111111 010101 1100110101 010101001 1101001010 1111001011 111010 110111010111 110011011101 11011 11101110110 111010 11111110 111101111101 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 1,021 |
Words | 204 |
Sentences | 13 |
Stanzas | 2 |
Stanza Lengths | 22, 5 |
Lines Amount | 27 |
Letters per line (avg) | 29 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 395 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 102 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:00 min read
- 97 Views
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