Camomile Tea

-by Katherine Mansfield

1. Outside the
2. sky is light with stars;
3. There’s a hollow roaring from the sea.
4. And, alas! for the little almond flowers,
5. The wind is shaking the almond tree.


6. How little I thought, a year ago,
7. In the horrible cottage upon the Lee
8. That he and I should be sitting so
9. And sipping a cup of
10. camomile tea.


11. Light
12. as feathers the witches fly,
13. The horn of the moon is plain to see;
14. By a firefly under a jonquil flower
15. A goblin toasts a bumble-bee.


16. We
17. might be fifty,
18. we
19. might be five,
20. So snug,
21. so compact,
23. so wise are we!
24. Under the kitchen-table leg
27. My knee
28. is pressing
29. against his knee.


33. Our shutters
34. are shut,the fire is low,
35. The tap is dripping peacefully;
36. The saucepan shadows on the wall
37. Are black and round and plain to see.