Halfway Down
Halfway down the stairsIs a stairWhere I sit.There isn’t anyOther stairQuite likeIt.I’m not at the bottom,I’m not at the top;So this is the stairWhereI alwaysStop.
Halfway up the stairsIsn’t up,And isn’t down.It isn’t in the nursery,It isn’t in the town.And all sorts of funny thoughtsRun round my head:“It isn’t reallyAnywhere!It’s somewhere elseInstead!”
Words in this poem
- nursery n.
- The act of nursing. [Cf. F. nourricerie.]
- funny a.
- Droll; comical; amusing; laughable. Funny bone. See crazy bone, under Crazy. [From Fun.]
- somewhere adv.
- In some place unknown or not specified; in one place or another.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Halfway Down 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, Halfway Down, in When We Were Very Young (1924), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #70271, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/milne-when-we-were-very-young/halfway-down.html, id L27209.
Form and metre
Halfway Down is 24 lines in 2 stanzas. The metre is iambic dimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 90%).
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 -AB-A-B-CAA-C stairs · stairA · sitB · any · stairA · like · itB · bottom · topC · stairA · whereA · always · stopC
- 2 --A-A-B---B stairs · up · downA · nursery · townA · thoughts · headB · really · anywhere · else · insteadB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Halfway down the stairs | 5 | //··· |
| Is a stair | 3 | ··· |
| Where I sit. | 3 | ··· |
| There isn’t any | 5 | ·/˘/˘ |
| Other stair | 3 | /˘· |
| Quite like | 2 | ·· |
| It. | 1 | · |
| I’m not at the bottom, | 6 | ····/˘ |
| I’m not at the top; | 5 | ····· |
| So this is the stair | 5 | ····· |
| Where | 1 | · |
| I always | 3 | ·/· |
| Stop. | 1 | · |
| Halfway up the stairs | 5 | //··· |
| Isn’t up, | 3 | /˘· |
| And isn’t down. | 4 | ·/˘· |
| It isn’t in the nursery, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘˘ |
| It isn’t in the town. | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| And all sorts of funny thoughts | 7 | ····/˘· |
| Run round my head: | 4 | ···· |
| “It isn’t really | 5 | ·/˘/˘ |
| Anywhere! | 3 | /˘· |
| It’s somewhere else | 4 | ·/·· |
| Instead!” | 2 | ˘/ |
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.