The Charcoal Burner
The charcoal-burner has tales to tell.He lives in the Forest,Alone in the Forest;He sits in the Forest,Alone in the Forest.And the sun comes slanting between the trees,And rabbits come up, and they give him good-morning,And rabbits come up and say, "Beautiful morning"....And the moon swings clear of the tall black trees,And owls fly over and wish him good-night,Quietly over to wish him good-night....
And he sits and thinks of the things they know,He and the Forest, alone together—The springs that come and the summers that go,Autumn dew on bracken and heather,The drip of the Forest beneath the snow....All the things they have seen,All the things they have heard:An April sky swept clean and the song of a bird....Oh, the charcoal-burner has tales to tell!And he lives in the Forest and knows us well.
Words in this poem
- bracken n.
- A brake or fern. [OE. braken, AS. bracce. See 2d Brake, n.]
- drip v. i.
- To fall in drops; as, water drips from the eaves. [Akin to LG. drippen, Dan. dryppe, from a noun. See Drop.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Charcoal Burner 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, The Charcoal Burner, in Now We Are Six (1927), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #70516, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/milne-now-we-are-six/the-charcoal-burner.html, id L27227.
Form and metre
The Charcoal Burner is 21 lines in 2 stanzas. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 71%).
See other poems in iambic pentameter.
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 -AAAABCCBDD tell · forestA · forestA · forestA · forestA · treesB · morningC · morningC · treesB · nightD · nightD
- 2 ABABA-CCDD knowA · togetherB · goA · heatherB · snowA · seen · heardC · birdC · tellD · wellD
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 pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| The charcoal-burner has tales to tell. | 9 | ·/·/˘···· |
| He lives in the Forest, | 6 | ····/˘ |
| Alone in the Forest; | 6 | ˘/··/˘ |
| He sits in the Forest, | 6 | ····/˘ |
| Alone in the Forest. | 6 | ˘/··/˘ |
| And the sun comes slanting between the trees, | 10 | ····/˘···· |
| And rabbits come up, and they give him good-morning, | 12 | ·/˘·······/˘ |
| And rabbits come up and say, "Beautiful morning".... | 11 | ·/˘····/˘/˘ |
| And the moon swings clear of the tall black trees, | 10 | ·········· |
| And owls fly over and wish him good-night, | 9 | ········· |
| Quietly over to wish him good-night.... | 8 | /˘······ |
| And he sits and thinks of the things they know, | 10 | ·········· |
| He and the Forest, alone together— | 10 | ···/˘˘/˘/˘ |
| The springs that come and the summers that go, | 10 | ······/˘·· |
| Autumn dew on bracken and heather, | 9 | /˘··/˘·/˘ |
| The drip of the Forest beneath the snow.... | 10 | ····/˘···· |
| All the things they have seen, | 6 | ······ |
| All the things they have heard: | 6 | ······ |
| An April sky swept clean and the song of a bird.... | 12 | ·/˘········· |
| Oh, the charcoal-burner has tales to tell! | 10 | ··/·/˘···· |
| And he lives in the Forest and knows us well. | 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.