Review of "Poems," by Katherine Mansfield

Review of

Poems, by Katherine Mansfield

Four out of five stars

 Writing poetry is one of the hardest tasks that a writer can take on, for, every word must be the best possible and there is no form of writing where the words depend on each other more to establish the overall meaning. Therefore, there are many good poets, but reaching the highest level is a rare achievement. Mansfield is a good poet.

 The poetry in this collection covers a great deal of the human condition, from the joys and fears of childhood to interacting with a grandmother to calmly drinking a cup of tea while the wind howls outside. Several rhyming strategies are used, in most cases no patterns are used throughout an item of verse.

 Like much of what was published in the first half of the twentieth century, racism is expressed in a very matter-of-fact form. In “Song by the Window Before Bed” there is the line, “The n**ger trees are laughing too.” The short poem called, “Grown-up Talk” where the subject is where babies come from, there is the line “I suppose God makes the black ones When the saucepan isn’t clean.”

 If you are interested in poetry, this is a book that you will likely enjoy. Teachers of high school English will find some short poems that will serve as strong subjects for study in their classes.