Katherine Mansfield's poetry captures the absurdity of humans within a simple, often ironic framework. She writes short lines but packs them full of constant but not repetitive recreations of popular opinions. Although the majority of her work relates to society, she does write about her own experiences in poems like "Voices of the Air." Even in this context, however, her writing remains strangely depersonalized. True, she is witnessing the beach and hearing the sounds in question, but she could be anyone. She reveals nothing of her intimate private thoughts in the process of writing.
In her analysis of how people think, Mansfield was revolutionary for her time. She, as a woman, was not expected to possess such a keen aptitude for reading and understanding people. Repeatedly, however, she picks up on people's little consistencies, like the way parents demand such perfect behavior from their children. She writes "A Few Rules for Beginners" on this subject, enumerating a few expectations parents set, and then she concludes by outright rejecting this attitude and preferring affection and comfort.
Poems like "Countrywomen" demonstrate Mansfield's own masterful recognition of the absurdity of life. The two women in question bear the physical signs of their occupation, as if they had been built for just that purpose. The absurdity in this text is that the women should so perfectly encapsulate for the passerby to see how they spend their time, but Mansfield notices. She cannot help but ponder how these two women offer amusement just by going about their daily business, a testament to the broader absurdity of work and corporeal inhabitation in the first place.
