In Katherine Mansfield's poem entitled, "Her First Ball," the
author uses the language of the story in several way. In particular, the words she chooses add a
sense of excitement to the story.
The first example describes
Leila's trip in the carriage. The href="http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/bolster">bolster (or cushion) feels
like the sleeve of an unknown escort; that sense, along with the way the carriage "bowls" its
occupants along, excite Leila as she approaches her first
ball.
She sat back in
her own little corner of it, and the bolster on which her hand rested felt like the sleeve of an
unknown young man's dress suit; and away they
bowled...
It is easy to sense Leila's
excitement as she tries to contain her eagerness, but notices the smallest details of the evening
(the roses, the white fur...), sure she will never forget them. The reader may also be swept into
a place in the memory where an evening was eagerly anticipated and equally
memorable:
...she
tried not to care. But every single thing was so new and exciting ...Meg's tuberoses, Jose's long
loop of amber, Laura's little dark head, pushing above her white fur like a flower through snow.
She would remember for ever.
Besides
the excitement portrayed in Leila's character, inanimate objects (the gaslight, the tuning of the
instruments) become harbingers of a joyful night, personified to react as a person might to this
evening of possibilities—the gas light is already "dancing," and with the sound of the
instruments, it jumps almost to the ceiling:
A great quivering jet of gas lighted the ladies' room. It
couldn't wait; it was dancing already. When the door opened again and there came a burst of
tuning from the drill hall, it leaped almost to the
ceiling.
In the dancing hall,
personification is used to convey excitement in the flags that hang across the room's
ceiling:
Leila...looking over Meg's shoulder, felt that even the
little quivering coloured flags strung across the ceiling were
talking.
Once last example is found in
the following passage—Leila realizes that something has changed in her: the experience is
thrilling. Leila feels as if her life has just started. And where the evening had once seemed
"mournful" and "solemn," it is now a beautiful thing, and shall never dampen her spirits
again:
For it was
thrilling. Her first ball! She was only at the beginning of everything. It seemed to her that she
had never known what the night was like before. Up till now it had been dark, silent, beautiful
very often--oh yes--but mournful somehow. Solemn. And now it would never be like that again--it
had opened dazzling bright.
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