Poems by Katherine Mansfield

All Poems Original Poems Translations

« ‹ 1 2 3 4 5 › »

Evening Song of the Thoughtful Child

Shadow children, thin and small,

Now the day is left behind,

You are dancing on the wall,

On the curtains, on the blind.

On the ceiling, children, too,

Peeping round the nursery door,

Let me come and play with you,

As we always played before.

by Katherine Mansfield

Deaf House Agent

That deaf old man

With his hand to his ear—

His hand to hi head stood out like a shell,

Horny and hollow. He said, "I can't hear,"

He muttered, "Don't shout,

I can hear very well!"

He mumbled, "I can't catch a word;

I can't follow."

by Katherine Mansfield

Sea Song

I will think no more of the sea!

Of the big green waves

And the hollowed shore,

Of the brown rock caves

No more, no more

Of the swell and the weed

And the bubbling foam.

Memory dwells in my far away home,

by Katherine Mansfield

Fairy Tale (2)

Now folds the Tree of Day its perfect flowers,

And every bloom becomes a bud again,

Shut and sealed up against the golden showers

Of bees that hover in the velvet hours….

Now a strain

Wild and mournful blown from shadow towers,

Echoed from shadow ships upon the foam,

Proclaims the Queen of Night.

by Katherine Mansfield

Countrywomen

These be two

Countrywomen.

What a size!

Grand big arms

And round red faces;

Big substantial

Sit-down-places;

Great big bosoms firm as cheese

by Katherine Mansfield

Sanary

Her little hot room looked over the bay

Through a stiff palisade of glinting palms,

And there she would lie in the heat of the day,

Her dark head resting upon her arms,

So quiet, so still, she did not seem

To think, to feel, or even to dream.

The shimmering, blinding web of sea

Hung from the sky, and the spider sun

by Katherine Mansfield

Fairy Tale

Now this is the story of Olaf

Who ages and ages ago

Lived right on the top of a mountain,

A mountain all covered with snow.

And he was quite pretty and tiny

With beautiful curling fair hair

And small hands like delicate flowers—

Cheeks kissed by the cold mountain air.

by Katherine Mansfield

Autumn Song

Now's the time when children's noses

All become as red as roses

And the colour of their faces

Makes me think of orchard places

Where the juicy apples grow,

And tomatoes in a row.

And to-day the hardened sinner

Never could be late for dinner,

by Katherine Mansfield

The Meeting

We started speaking,

Looked at each other, then turned away.

The tears kept rising to my eyes.

But I could not weep.

I wanted to take your hand

But my hand trembled.

You kept counting the days

Before we should meet again.

by Katherine Mansfield

Grown- Up Talk

Half-Past-Six and I were talking

In a very grown-up way;

We had got so tired with running

That we did not want to play.

"How do babies come, I wonder,"

He said, looking at the sky,

"Does God mix the things together

An' just make it-like a pie?"

by Katherine Mansfield

The Awakening River

The gulls are mad-in-love with the river,

And the river unveils her face and smiles.

In her sleep-brooding eyes they mirror their shining wings.

She lies on silver pillows: the sun leans over her.

He warms and warms her, he kisses and kisses her.

There are sparks in her hair and she stirs in laughter.

Be careful, my beautiful waking one! You will catch

on fire.

by Katherine Mansfield

Sleeping Together

Sleeping together… how tired you were…

How warm our room… how the firelight spread

On walls and ceiling and great white bed!

We spoke in whispers as children do,

And now it was I—and then it was you

Slept a moment, to wake—"My dear,

I'm not at all sleepy," one of us said….

Was it a thousand years ago?

by Katherine Mansfield