Waiting at the Window
These are my two drops of rainWaiting on the window-pane.
I am waiting here to seeWhich the winning one will be.
Both of them have different names.One is John and one is James.
All the best and all the worstComes from which of them is first.
James has just begun to ooze.He's the one I want to lose.
John is waiting to begin.He's the one I want to win.
James is going slowly on.Something sort of sticks to John.
John is moving off at last.James is going pretty fast.
John is rushing down the pane.James is going slow again.
James has met a sort of smear.John is getting very near.
Is he going fast enough?(James has found a piece of fluff.)
John has hurried quickly by.(James was talking to a fly.)
John is there, and John has won!Look! I told you! Here's the sun!
Words in this poem
- pane n.
- The narrow edge of a hammer head. See Peen. [F. panne.]
- fluff n.
- Nap or down; flue; soft, downy feathers.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Waiting at the Window 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, Waiting at the Window, in Now We Are Six (1927), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #70516, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/milne-now-we-are-six/waiting-at-the-window.html, id L27248.
Form and metre
Waiting at the Window is 26 lines in 13 stanzas of 2 lines each. It is in rhyming couplets. The metre is trochaic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 95%).
See other poems in rhyming couplets, other poems in trochaic 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 AA rainA · paneA
- 2 AA seeA · beA
- 3 AA namesA · jamesA
- 4 AA worstA · firstA
- 5 AA oozeA · loseA
- 6 AA beginA · winA
- 7 AA onA · johnA
- 8 AA lastA · fastA
- 9 AA paneA · againA
- 10 AA smearA · nearA
- 11 AA enoughA · fluffA
- 12 AA byA · flyA
- 13 AA wonA · sunA
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 trochaic tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| These are my two drops of rain | 7 | ······· |
| Waiting on the window-pane. | 7 | /˘··/˘· |
| I am waiting here to see | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Which the winning one will be. | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Both of them have different names. | 7 | ····/˘· |
| One is John and one is James. | 7 | ······· |
| All the best and all the worst | 7 | ······· |
| Comes from which of them is first. | 7 | ······· |
| James has just begun to ooze. | 7 | ···˘/·· |
| He's the one I want to lose. | 7 | ······· |
| John is waiting to begin. | 7 | ··/˘·˘/ |
| He's the one I want to win. | 7 | ······· |
| James is going slowly on. | 6 | ··//˘· |
| Something sort of sticks to John. | 7 | /˘····· |
| John is moving off at last. | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| James is going pretty fast. | 6 | ··//˘· |
| John is rushing down the pane. | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| James is going slow again. | 6 | ··/·˘/ |
| James has met a sort of smear. | 7 | ······· |
| John is getting very near. | 7 | ··/˘/˘· |
| Is he going fast enough? | 6 | ··/·˘/ |
| (James has found a piece of fluff.) | 7 | ······· |
| John has hurried quickly by. | 7 | ··/˘/˘· |
| (James was talking to a fly.) | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| John is there, and John has won! | 7 | ······· |
| Look! I told you! Here's the sun! | 7 | ······· |
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.