Journey's End
Christopher, Christopher, where are you going, Christopher Robin?"Just up to the top of the hill,Upping and upping untilI am right on the top of the hill,"Said Christopher Robin.
Christopher, Christopher, why are you going, Christopher Robin?There's nothing to see, so whenYou've got to the top, what then?"Just down to the bottom again,"Said Christopher Robin.
About this text
Journey's End 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, Journey's End, in Now We Are Six (1927), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #70516, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/milne-now-we-are-six/journeys-end.html, id L27231.
Form and metre
Journey's End is 10 lines in 2 stanzas of 5 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABBBA. 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 ABBBA robinA · hillB · untilB · hillB · robinA
- 2 ABBBA robinA · whenB · thenB · againB · robinA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Christopher, Christopher, where are you going, Christopher Robin? | 12 | /˘/˘···//˘/˘ |
| "Just up to the top of the hill, | 8 | ········ |
| Upping and upping until | 7 | /˘·/˘·· |
| I am right on the top of the hill," | 9 | ········· |
| Said Christopher Robin. | 6 | ·/˘˘/˘ |
| Christopher, Christopher, why are you going, Christopher Robin? | 12 | /˘/˘···//˘/˘ |
| There's nothing to see, so when | 7 | ·/˘···· |
| You've got to the top, what then? | 7 | ······· |
| "Just down to the bottom again," | 8 | ····/˘˘/ |
| Said Christopher Robin. | 6 | ·/˘˘/˘ |
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.