Wind on the Hill
No one can tell me,Nobody knows,Where the wind comes from,Where the wind goes.
It's flying from somewhereAs fast as it can,I couldn't keep up with it,Not if I ran.
But if I stopped holdingThe string of my kite,It would blow with the windFor a day and a night.
And then when I found it,Wherever it blew,I should know that the windHad been going there too.
So then I could tell themWhere the wind goes....But where the wind comes fromNobody knows.
Words in this poem
- nobody n.
- No person; no one; not anybody. [No, a. + body.]
- somewhere adv.
- In some place unknown or not specified; in one place or another.
- wherever adv.
- At or in whatever place; wheresoever.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Wind on the Hill 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, Wind on the Hill, in Now We Are Six (1927), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #70516, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/milne-now-we-are-six/wind-on-the-hill.html, id L27250.
Form and metre
Wind on the Hill is 20 lines in 5 stanzas of 4 lines each. The metre is anapaestic dimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 85%).
See other poems in anapaestic 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 -A-A me · knowsA · from · goesA
- 2 -A-A somewhere · canA · it · ranA
- 3 -A-A holding · kiteA · wind · nightA
- 4 -A-A it · blewA · wind · tooA
- 5 ABAB themA · goesB · fromA · knowsB
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 anapaestic dimeter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| No one can tell me, | 5 | ····· |
| Nobody knows, | 4 | /··· |
| Where the wind comes from, | 5 | ····· |
| Where the wind goes. | 4 | ···· |
| It's flying from somewhere | 6 | ·/˘·/· |
| As fast as it can, | 5 | ····· |
| I couldn't keep up with it, | 7 | ·/˘···· |
| Not if I ran. | 4 | ···· |
| But if I stopped holding | 6 | ····/˘ |
| The string of my kite, | 5 | ····· |
| It would blow with the wind | 6 | ······ |
| For a day and a night. | 6 | ······ |
| And then when I found it, | 6 | ······ |
| Wherever it blew, | 5 | ˘/˘·· |
| I should know that the wind | 6 | ······ |
| Had been going there too. | 6 | ··/˘·· |
| So then I could tell them | 6 | ······ |
| Where the wind goes.... | 4 | ···· |
| But where the wind comes from | 6 | ······ |
| Nobody knows. | 4 | /··· |
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.