At the Zoo
There are lions and roaring tigers, and enormous camels and things,There are biffalo-buffalo-bisons, and a great big bear with wings,There’s a sort of a tiny potamus, and a tiny nosserus too—But I gave buns to the elephant when I went down to the Zoo!
There are badgers and bidgers and bodgers, and a Super-intendent’s House,There are masses of goats, and a Polar, and different kinds of mouse,And I think there’s a sort of a something which is called a wallaboo—But I gave buns to the elephant when I went down to the Zoo!
If you try to talk to the bison, he never quite understands;You can’t shake hands with a mingo—he doesn’t like shaking hands.And lions and roaring tigers hate saying, “How do you do?”—But I give buns to the elephant when I go down to the Zoo!
Words in this poem
- went n.
- Course; way; path; journey; direction.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
At the Zoo is in the public domain. This text is taken from When We Were Very Young, Project Gutenberg ebook #70271; 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, At the Zoo, in When We Were Very Young (1924), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #70271, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/milne-when-we-were-very-young/at-the-zoo.html, id L27195.
Form and metre
At the Zoo is 12 lines in 3 stanzas of 4 lines each. Every stanza rhymes AABB. The metre is anapaestic hexameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 73%).
See other poems in anapaestic hexameter.
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 AABB thingsA · wingsA · tooB · zooB
- 2 AABB houseA · mouseA · wallabooB · zooB
- 3 AABB understandsA · handsA · doB · zooB
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 hexameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| There are lions and roaring tigers, and enormous camels and things, | 16 | ··/˘·/˘/·˘/˘/˘·· |
| There are biffalo-buffalo-bisons, and a great big bear with wings, | 17 | ·····/˘·/˘······· |
| There’s a sort of a tiny potamus, and a tiny nosserus too— | 18 | ·····/˘·····/˘···· |
| But I gave buns to the elephant when I went down to the Zoo! | 15 | ······/˘······· |
| There are badgers and bidgers and bodgers, and a Super-intendent’s House, | 18 | ··/˘········/˘···· |
| There are masses of goats, and a Polar, and different kinds of mouse, | 16 | ··/˘····/˘·/˘··· |
| And I think there’s a sort of a something which is called a wallaboo— | 17 | ········/˘······· |
| But I gave buns to the elephant when I went down to the Zoo! | 15 | ······/˘······· |
| If you try to talk to the bison, he never quite understands; | 15 | ·······/˘·/··˘/ |
| You can’t shake hands with a mingo—he doesn’t like shaking hands. | 15 | ······/˘·/˘·/˘· |
| And lions and roaring tigers hate saying, “How do you do?”— | 14 | ·/˘·/˘/·/˘···· |
| But I give buns to the elephant when I go down to the Zoo! | 15 | ······/˘······· |
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.