Down By the Pond
I'm fishing.Don't talk, anybody, don't come near!Can't you see that the fish might hear?He thinks I'm playing with a piece of string;He thinks I'm another sort of funny sort of thing,But he doesn't know I'm fishing—He doesn't know I'm fishing.That's what I'm doing—Fishing.
No, I'm not, I'm newting.Don't cough, anybody, don't come by!Any small noise makes a newt feel shy.He thinks I'm a bush, or a new sort of tree;He thinks it's somebody, but doesn't think it's Me,And he doesn't know I'm newting—No, he doesn't know I'm newting.That's what I'm doing—Newting.
Words in this poem
- funny a.
- Droll; comical; amusing; laughable. Funny bone. See crazy bone, under Crazy. [From Fun.]
- somebody n.
- A person unknown or uncertain; a person indeterminate; some person.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Down By the Pond 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, Down By the Pond, in Now We Are Six (1927), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #70516, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/milne-now-we-are-six/down-by-the-pond.html, id L27237.
Form and metre
Down By the Pond is 18 lines in 2 stanzas of 9 lines each. This poem did not settle on a metre of its own; the book it comes from is in iambic tetrameter.
See 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 ABBCCAACA fishingA · nearB · hearB · stringC · thingC · fishingA · fishingA · doingC · fishingA
- 2 ABBCCAA-A newtingA · byB · shyB · treeC · meC · newtingA · newtingA · doing · newtingA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| I'm fishing. | 3 | ·/˘ |
| Don't talk, anybody, don't come near! | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Can't you see that the fish might hear? | 8 | ········ |
| He thinks I'm playing with a piece of string; | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| He thinks I'm another sort of funny sort of thing, | 13 | ···˘/˘··/˘··· |
| But he doesn't know I'm fishing— | 8 | ··/˘··/˘ |
| He doesn't know I'm fishing. | 7 | ·/˘··/˘ |
| That's what I'm doing— | 5 | ···/˘ |
| Fishing. | 2 | /˘ |
| No, I'm not, I'm newting. | 6 | ····/˘ |
| Don't cough, anybody, don't come by! | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Any small noise makes a newt feel shy. | 9 | /˘······· |
| He thinks I'm a bush, or a new sort of tree; | 11 | ··········· |
| He thinks it's somebody, but doesn't think it's Me, | 12 | ···/˘˘·/˘··· |
| And he doesn't know I'm newting— | 8 | ··/˘··/˘ |
| No, he doesn't know I'm newting. | 8 | ··/˘··/˘ |
| That's what I'm doing— | 5 | ···/˘ |
| Newting. | 2 | /˘ |
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.