When We Were Very Young
What this poem is
When We Were Very Young is a best-selling book of poetry by A. A. Milne. It was first published in 1924, and it was illustrated by E. H. Shepard. Several of the verses were set to music by Harold Fraser-Simson. The book begins with an introduction entitled "Just Before We Begin", which, in part, tells readers to imagine for themselves who the narrator is, and that it might be Christopher Robin. The 38th poem in the book, "Teddy Bear", that originally appeared in Punch magazine in February 1924, was the first appearance of the famous character Winnie-the-Pooh, first named "Mr. Edward Bear" by Christopher Robin Milne. In one of the illustrations of "Teddy Bear", Winnie-the-Pooh is shown wearing a shirt which was later coloured red when reproduced on a recording produced by Stephen Slesinger. This has become his standard appearance in the Disney adaptations. On 1 January 2020, When We Were Very Young entered the public domain in the United States, but remains protected in some other countries, including the UK.
Adapted from the Wikipedia article “When We Were Very Young” (revision 1370050363), used under CC BY-SA 4.0. Laurel's own notes and measurements are not from Wikipedia.
Measured across the book
Across its 1,139 lines, 92% of stressed syllables fall on the beat (95% interval 91% to 93%). Alliteration runs at 1.03 times what shuffling the words would give (0.28 observed against 0.27 expected). 33% of the lines have a feminine ending.
Baselines and intervals are described in the methods.
Contents
About this text
Public domain. Text from When We Were Very Young, Project Gutenberg ebook #70271. Free to read, print, copy and reuse.