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Katherine Mansfield (1888-1923)

Countrywomen


              1These be two
              2Country women.
              3What a size!
              4Great big arms
              5And round red faces;
              6Big substantial
              7Sit down places;
              8Great big bosoms firm as cheese
              9Bursting through their country jackets;
            10Wide big laps
            11And sturdy knees;
            12Hands outspread,
            13Round and rosy,
            14Hands to hold
            15A country posy
            16Or a baby or a lamb --
            17    And such eyes!
            18Stupid, shifty, small and sly
            19Peeping through a slit of sty,
            20Squinting through their neighbours' plackets.


Online text copyright © 2011, Ian Lancashire (the Department of English) and the University of Toronto.
Published by the Web Development Group, Information Technology Services, University of Toronto Libraries.

Original text: Katherine Mansfield, Poems (London: Constable, 1923): 34. 11647.e.58 British Library
First publication date: 1923
RPO poem editor: Ian Lancashire
RP edition: RPO 2000.
Recent editing: 2:2002/4/4

Composition date: 1914
Rhyme: abcdefeghigjkljmcnnh


Other poems by Katherine Mansfield