When We Were Ve…

When We Were Very Young by A.A. Milne

 

A.A. Milne, author of Winnie-the-Pooh, has also written some introduction to poetry books! The poems in the book When We Were Very Young, while they rhyme, have a more abstract meter than most poetry. The lines in the poems are very short, making the poems easily digestable for young readers. The content in poems such as “Halfway Down” is easy to understand simply silly in most cases. “Halfway Down,” included in this post, is simply about a boy sitting on some stairs, thinking.

 

“Halfway Down”

Halfway down the stairs

is a stair

where i sit.

there isn’t any

other stair

quite like

it.

i’m not at the bottom,

i’m not at the top;

so this is the stair

where

I always

stop.

 

Halfway up the stairs

Isn’t up

And it isn’t down.

It isn’t in the nursery,

It isn’t in town.

And all sorts of funny thoughts

Run round my head.

It isn’t really

Anywhere!

It’s somewhere else

Instead!

 

 

The poems are quite short, making the reading easy to pay attention to. Milne’s poems are great for activities, as they are short enough for students to gain an understanding of the meter, rhyme scheme, and basic content.

 

While the poems are great, we still recommend taking some time to go back and reread the stories about Winnie the Pooh and Christopher Robin—I mean, they’re classics!

 

LOVEEEE,

Emily Hurst and Margaret Ann Hazelton