Happiness
John hadGreat BigWaterproofBoots on;John had aGreat BigWaterproofHat;John had aGreat BigWaterproofMackintosh—And that(Said John)IsThat.
Words in this poem
- mackintosh n.
- A waterproof outer garment; -- so called from the name of the inventor.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Happiness 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, Happiness, in When We Were Very Young (1924), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #70271, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/milne-when-we-were-very-young/happiness.html, id L27177.
Form and metre
Happiness is 16 lines in a single stanza.
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 -ABCDABEDAB-EC-E had · bigA · waterproofB · onC · aD · bigA · waterproofB · hatE · aD · bigA · waterproofB · mackintosh · thatE · johnC · is · thatE
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. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| John had | 2 | ·· |
| Great Big | 2 | ·· |
| Waterproof | 3 | /˘· |
| Boots on; | 2 | ·· |
| John had a | 3 | ··· |
| Great Big | 2 | ·· |
| Waterproof | 3 | /˘· |
| Hat; | 1 | · |
| John had a | 3 | ··· |
| Great Big | 2 | ·· |
| Waterproof | 3 | /˘· |
| Mackintosh— | 3 | /˘· |
| And that | 2 | ·· |
| (Said John) | 2 | ·· |
| Is | 1 | · |
| That. | 1 | · |
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.