Butterfly Laughter
Katherine Mansfield 1888 (Wellington) – 1923 (Fontainebleau, Île-de-France)
In the middle of our porridge plates
There was a blue butterfly painted
And each morning we tried who should reach the
butterfly first.
Then the Grandmother said: "Do not eat the poor
butterfly."
That made us laugh.
Always she said it and always it started us laughing.
It seemed such a sweet little joke.
I was certain that one fine morning
The butterfly would fly out of our plates,
Laughing the teeniest laugh in the world,
And perch on the Grandmother's lap.
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 16, 2023
- 25 sec read
- 556 Views
Quick analysis:
Scheme | ABCDEFGHIHAJK |
---|---|
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 479 |
Words | 86 |
Stanzas | 1 |
Stanza Lengths | 13 |
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"Butterfly Laughter" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 28 Mar. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/25109/butterfly-laughter>.
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