Song of Karen, the Dancing Child

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



(O little white feet of mine)
Out in the storm and the rain you fly;
(Red, red shoes the colour of wine)
Can the children hear my cry?

(O little white feet of mine)
Never a child in the whole great town;
(Red, red shoes the colour of wine)
Lights out and the blinds pulled down.

(O little white feet of mine)
Never a light on a window pane,
(Red, red shoes the colour of wine)
And the wild wet cry of the rain.

(O little white feet of mine)
Shall I never again be still?
(Red, red shoes the colour of wine)
And away over valley and hill.

(O little white feet of mine)
Children, children, open the door!
(Red, red shoes the colour of wine)
And the wind shrieks Nevermore.

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 14, 2023

40 sec read
42

Quick analysis:

Scheme AbAb AcAc AdAd AeAe AfAf
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 659
Words 134
Stanzas 5
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 4, 4, 4

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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