The Domestic Space
The domestic space becomes the site of the interplay between the interior and the exterior: often the changes in emotions of Mansfield's poetic narrators will change their view of the external setting. This can be observed in 'Villa Pauline' where, until the arrival of (presumably) her lover, the house is simply "four little rooms and a cupboard / without a bone": the space lacks life and substance, stressed through the use of lexis of the human body in regards to the structure of the house ("bone") - after his arrival the house becomes glorious and full of life. The domestic space thus acts as a liminal space in terms of both the interior and exterior.
The Sea
Like modernist Virginia Woolf, to whom she is regularly compared within critical discourse, the sea for Mansfield becomes both an environmental motif and a major theme within her poetry. It represent a space in perpetual movement, but it is also one that is frequently feminized such as in The Sea or in The Sea Child where it becomes a maternal figure. Within the former poem the changes in tone - from one of rejection to potential understanding - in a way reflect the tides of the ocean, as Mansfield uses the sea to switch her messages back and forth.
Travel
Mansfield's poetry is often sustained by an idea of travel, of leaving or coming back to ones roots. In 'The Sea Child' the eponymous subject washes away from its home, lost in a vast expanse and while the narrator instructs it to return back home the implication is that this task is perhaps a futile or impossible one. The fixation of this theme is unsurprising considering Mansfield's travel from her homeland of New Zealand across the oceans to Great Britain at the age of only 19: travelling structured not just her poetry but her own life-story.
Sound
The musical qualities of her work where obviously important to Mansfield herself, and she regularly submitted to the avant-garde magazine 'Rhythm' which she even helped keep solvent when it underwent financial strain. Sound and rhythm are often explored through use of dictated speech. Take for example 'Deaf House Agent' which uses syntax and capitalization to direct the reader as to how the words should sounds: "I dunno wot place", "what the HELL": colloquialisms, intentional mis-spellings, and changes to grammar help Mansfield evoke both a specific tone (often grounded in an exploration of social class) and a sense of performance in her poetry - these are works that demand to be read aloud.
