Furry Bear
If I were a bear,And a big bear too,I shouldn't much careIf it froze or snew;I shouldn't much mindIf it snowed or friz—I'd be all fur-linedWith a coat like his!
For I'd have fur boots and a brown fur wrap,And brown fur knickers and a big fur cap.I'd have a fur muffle-ruff to cover my jaws,And brown fur mittens on my big brown paws.With a big brown furry-down up to my head,I'd sleep all the winter in a big fur bed.
Words in this poem
- snew v. i.
- To snow; to abound.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Furry Bear 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, Furry Bear, in Now We Are Six (1927), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #70516, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/milne-now-we-are-six/furry-bear.html, id L27232.
Form and metre
Furry Bear is 14 lines in 2 stanzas. The metre is iambic trimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 76%).
See other poems in iambic trimeter.
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 ABABC-C- bearA · tooB · careA · snewB · mindC · friz · linedC · his
- 2 AABBCC wrapA · capA · jawsB · pawsB · headC · bedC
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 trimeter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| If I were a bear, | 5 | ····· |
| And a big bear too, | 5 | ····· |
| I shouldn't much care | 5 | ·/˘·· |
| If it froze or snew; | 5 | ····· |
| I shouldn't much mind | 5 | ·/˘·· |
| If it snowed or friz— | 6 | ···˘·· |
| I'd be all fur-lined | 6 | ·····˘ |
| With a coat like his! | 5 | ····· |
| For I'd have fur boots and a brown fur wrap, | 10 | ·········· |
| And brown fur knickers and a big fur cap. | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| I'd have a fur muffle-ruff to cover my jaws, | 12 | ····/˘··/˘·· |
| And brown fur mittens on my big brown paws. | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| With a big brown furry-down up to my head, | 11 | ····/˘····· |
| I'd sleep all the winter in a big fur bed. | 11 | ····/˘····· |
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.