Cherry Stones
Tinker, Tailor,Soldier, Sailor,Rich Man, Poor Man,Ploughboy, Thief—
And what about a Cowboy,Policeman, Jailer,Engine-driver,Or Pirate Chief?What about a Postman—or a Keeper at the Zoo?What about the Circus Man who lets the people through?And the man who takes the pennies for the roundabouts and swings,Or the man who plays the organ, and the other man who sings?What about a Conjuror with rabbits in his pockets?What about a Rocket Man who's always making rockets?Oh, there's such a lot of things to do and such a lot to beThat there's always lots of cherries on my little cherry tree!
Words in this poem
- ploughboy n.
- A boy that drives or guides a team in plowing; a young rustic.
- cowboy n.
- A cattle herder; a drover; specifically, one of an adventurous class of herders and drovers on the plains of the Western and Southwestern United States.
- jailer n.
- The keeper of a jail or prison. [OE. jailer, gailer, OF. geolier, F. geôlier. See Jail.]
- postman n.
- A post or courier; a letter carrier.
- conjuror n.
- One bound by a common cath with others.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Cherry Stones is in the public domain. This text is taken from Now We Are Six, Project Gutenberg ebook #70516; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: A. A. Milne, Cherry Stones, in Now We Are Six (1927), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #70516, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/milne-now-we-are-six/cherry-stones.html, id L27224.
Form and metre
Cherry Stones is 16 lines in 2 verse paragraphs. It is in rhyming couplets, 62% of the lines: octosyllabic couplets. This poem did not settle on a metre of its own; the book it comes from is in iambic tetrameter.
See other poems in octosyllabic couplets, other poems in iambic tetrameter.
Measured by Laurel's pipeline, not copied from a handbook: how stress and metre are counted, how rhyme is lettered, how a drifted rhyme is found. Where the dictionary cannot confirm a rhyme the letter is withheld, not guessed.
Rhyme words, stanza by stanza
The word that ends each line, lettered by the rhyme it makes; a dash is a line whose rhyme the dictionary could not confirm.
- 1 AA-- tailorA · sailorA · man · thief
- 2 ----AABBCCDD cowboy · jailer · driver · chief · zooA · throughA · swingsB · singsB · pocketsC · rocketsC · beD · treeD
Scansion, line by line
Each line with its syllable count and the stresses the words themselves fix: / stressed, ˘ unstressed, · a syllable the word leaves free and the metre decides. Read against iambic tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Tinker, Tailor, | 4 | /˘/˘ |
| Soldier, Sailor, | 4 | /˘/˘ |
| Rich Man, Poor Man, | 4 | ···· |
| Ploughboy, Thief— | 3 | ··· |
| And what about a Cowboy, | 7 | ·····/· |
| Policeman, Jailer, | 5 | ˘/˘/˘ |
| Engine-driver, | 4 | /˘/˘ |
| Or Pirate Chief? | 4 | ·/˘· |
| What about a Postman—or a Keeper at the Zoo? | 13 | ····/˘··/˘··· |
| What about the Circus Man who lets the people through? | 13 | ····/˘····/˘· |
| And the man who takes the pennies for the roundabouts and swings, | 15 | ······/˘··/˘··· |
| Or the man who plays the organ, and the other man who sings? | 15 | ······/˘··/˘··· |
| What about a Conjuror with rabbits in his pockets? | 13 | ····/˘·/˘··/˘ |
| What about a Rocket Man who's always making rockets? | 14 | ····/˘··/·/˘/˘ |
| Oh, there's such a lot of things to do and such a lot to be | 15 | ··············· |
| That there's always lots of cherries on my little cherry tree! | 15 | ··/···/˘··/˘/˘· |
The reader shows the same poem with its rhymes coloured and a stress row above each line, the notes beside their stanzas, and any word's definition on a tap; the analysis page takes the whole book apart. How every part of this site was made.