The Engineer
Let it rain!Who cares?I've a trainUpstairs,With a brakeWhich I makeFrom a stringSort of thing,Which worksIn jerks,'Cos it dropsIn the spring,Which stopsWith the string,And the wheelsAll stickSo quickThat it feelsLike a thingThat you makeWith a brake,Not string....
So that's what I make,When the day's all wet.It's a good sort of brakeBut it hasn't worked yet.
Words in this poem
- upstairs adv.
- Up the stairs; in or toward an upper story.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Engineer 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 Engineer, in Now We Are Six (1927), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #70516, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/milne-now-we-are-six/the-engineer.html, id L27230.
Form and metre
The Engineer is 26 lines in 2 stanzas. The metre is iambic dimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 87%).
See other poems in iambic dimeter.
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 ABABCCDDEEFDFDGHHGDCCD rainA · caresB · trainA · upstairsB · brakeC · makeC · stringD · thingD · worksE · jerksE · dropsF · springD · stopsF · stringD · wheelsG · stickH · quickH · feelsG · thingD · makeC · brakeC · stringD
- 2 ABAB makeA · wetB · brakeA · yetB
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 dimeter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Let it rain! | 3 | ··· |
| Who cares? | 2 | ·· |
| I've a train | 3 | ··· |
| Upstairs, | 2 | ˘/ |
| With a brake | 3 | ··· |
| Which I make | 3 | ··· |
| From a string | 3 | ··· |
| Sort of thing, | 3 | ··· |
| Which works | 2 | ·· |
| In jerks, | 2 | ·· |
| 'Cos it drops | 3 | ··· |
| In the spring, | 3 | ··· |
| Which stops | 2 | ·· |
| With the string, | 3 | ··· |
| And the wheels | 3 | ··· |
| All stick | 2 | ·· |
| So quick | 2 | ·· |
| That it feels | 3 | ··· |
| Like a thing | 3 | ··· |
| That you make | 3 | ··· |
| With a brake, | 3 | ··· |
| Not string.... | 2 | ·· |
| So that's what I make, | 5 | ····· |
| When the day's all wet. | 5 | ····· |
| It's a good sort of brake | 6 | ······ |
| But it hasn't worked yet. | 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.