The Earth-Child in the Grass

In the very early morning 
Long before Dawn time 
I lay down in the paddock 
And listened to the cold song of the grass. 
Between my fingers the green blades, 
And the green blades pressed against my body. 
“Who is she leaning so heavily upon me?” 
Sang the grass. 
“Why does she weep on my bosom,
Mingling her tears with the tears of my mystic lover?
Foolish little earth child! 
It is not yet time. 
One day I shall open my bosom 
And you shall slip in—but not weeping. 
Then in the early morning 
Long before Dawn time 
Your lover will lie in the paddock. 
Between his fingers the green blades 
And the green blades pressed against his body. . . 
My song shall not sound cold to him 
In my deep wave he will find the wave of your hair 
In my strong sweet perfume, the perfume of your kisses. 
Long and long he will lie there  . . . 
Laughing—not weeping.”

Credit

This poem is in the public domain. Published in Poem-a-Day on April 5, 2025, by the Academy of American Poets.

About this Poem

“The Earth-Child in the Grass” appears in Poems (Constable & Co., Ltd., 1923) by Katherine Mansfield. In the book’s introductory note, the author opens with a journal entry from Mansfield stating: “‘I feel always trembling on the brink of poetry,’ she whispers to her brother. ‘The almond tree, the birds, the little wood where you are, the flowers you do not see, the open window out of which I lean and dream that you are against my shoulder, and the times that your photograph looks sad. But especially I want to write a kind of long elegy to you . . . perhaps not in poetry. No, perhaps in prose. Almost certainly in a kind of special prose.’”