Analysis of To L. H. B. (1894-1915 )

Katherine Mansfield 1888 (Wellington) – 1923 (Fontainebleau, Île-de-France)



Last night for the first time since you were dead
I walked with you, my brother, in a dream.
We were at home again beside the stream
Fringed with tall berry bushes, white and red.
"Don't touch them: they are poisonous," I said.
But your hand hovered, and I saw a beam
Of strange, bright laughter flying round your head
And as you stooped I saw the berries gleam.
"Don't you remember?  We called them Dead Man's
          Bread!"
     I woke and heard the wind moan and the roar
Of the dark water tumbling on the shore.
Where--where is the path of my dream for my eager
          feet?
By the remembered stream my brother stands
Waiting for me with berries in his hands...
"These are my body.  Sister, take and eat."


Scheme ABBAABABCADDEFGGF
Poetic Form
Metre 1110111101 1111110001 1011010101 1111010101 1111110011 1111001101 1111010111 0111110101 1101011111 1 1101011001 10110100101 111011111110 1 1001011101 1011110011 1111010101
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 707
Words 135
Sentences 12
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 17
Lines Amount 17
Letters per line (avg) 31
Words per line (avg) 8
Letters per stanza (avg) 527
Words per stanza (avg) 132
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 27, 2023

40 sec read
69

Katherine Mansfield

Katherine Mansfield Beauchamp Murry was a prominent modernist writer of short fiction who was born and brought up in colonial New Zealand and wrote under the pen name of Katherine Mansfield. more…

All Katherine Mansfield poems | Katherine Mansfield Books

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