Camomile Tea

-by Katherine Mansfield

Outside the sky is light with stars ;

                                                         There’s a hollow roaring from the sea.

                                                                                                                              And, alas! for the little almond flowers,

                                                                                                                                                                                                      The wind is shaking the almond tree.



How little I thought, a year ago,

                                                         In the horrible cottage upon the Lee

                                                                                                                              That he and I should be sitting so

                                                                                                                                                                                                      And sipping a cup of camomile tea.



Light as feathers the witches fly,

                                                         The horn of the moon is plain to see;

                                                                                                                              By a firefly under a jonquil flower

  •                                                                                                                                                                                                       A goblin toasts a bumble-bee.


    We might be fifty, we might be five,

                                                             So snug, so compact, so wise are we!

  •                                                                                                                               Under the kitchen-table leg

                                                                                                                                                                                                          My knee is pressing against his knee.



    Our shutters are shut, the fire is low,

                                                             The tap is dripping peacefully;

                                                                                                                                  The saucepan shadows on the wall

                                                                                                                                                                                                          Are black and round and plain to see.