Analysis of The Arabian Shawl

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



"It is cold outside, you will need a coat--
What! this old Arabian shawl!
Bind it about your head and throat,
These steps... it is dark... my hand... you
          might fall."

What has happened?  What strange, sweet charm
Lingers about the Arabian shawl...
Do not tremble so!  There can be no harm
In just remembering--that is all.

"I love you so--I will be your wife,"
Here, in the dark of the Terrace wall,
Say it again.  Let that other life
Fold us like the Arabian shawl.

"Do you remember?"... "I quite forget,
Some childish foolishness, that is all,
To-night is the first time we have met...
Let me take off my Arabian shawl!"


Scheme ABAXB CBCB DBDB EBEB
Poetic Form
Metre 1111111101 11101001 11011101 11111111 11 11101111 1001001001 1110111111 010100111 111111111 100110101 110111101 111001001 110101101 110100111 111011111 1111101001
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 624
Words 119
Sentences 17
Stanzas 4
Stanza Lengths 5, 4, 4, 4
Lines Amount 17
Letters per line (avg) 27
Words per line (avg) 7
Letters per stanza (avg) 114
Words per stanza (avg) 29
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

34 sec read
90

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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