Knights and Ladies
There is in my old picture-bookA page at which I like to look,Where knights and squires come riding downThe cobbles of some steep old town,And ladies from beneath the eavesFlutter their bravest handkerchiefs,Or, smiling proudly, toss down gages . . .But that was in the Middle Ages.It wouldn’t happen now; but still,Whenever I look up the hillWhere, dark against the green and blue,The firs come marching, two by two,I wonder if perhaps I mightSee suddenly a shining knightWinding his way from blue to green—Exactly as it would have beenThose many, many years ago. . . .
Perhaps I might. You never know.
About this text
Knights and Ladies 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, Knights and Ladies, in When We Were Very Young (1924), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #70271, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/milne-when-we-were-very-young/knights-and-ladies.html, id L27206.
Form and metre
Knights and Ladies is 18 lines in 2 verse paragraphs. It is in rhyming couplets, 89% of the lines: octosyllabic couplets. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 89%).
See other poems in octosyllabic couplets, other poems in iambic tetrameter.
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 AABBCCDDEEFFGGHH- bookA · lookA · downB · townB · eavesC · handkerchiefsC · gagesD · agesD · stillE · hillE · blueF · twoF · mightG · knightG · greenH · beenH · ago
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 tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| There is in my old picture-book | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| A page at which I like to look, | 8 | ········ |
| Where knights and squires come riding down | 8 | ···/·/˘· |
| The cobbles of some steep old town, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| And ladies from beneath the eaves | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Flutter their bravest handkerchiefs, | 8 | /˘·/˘/˘˘ |
| Or, smiling proudly, toss down gages . . . | 9 | ·/˘/˘··/˘ |
| But that was in the Middle Ages. | 9 | ·····/˘/˘ |
| It wouldn’t happen now; but still, | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| Whenever I look up the hill | 8 | ˘/˘····· |
| Where, dark against the green and blue, | 8 | ········ |
| The firs come marching, two by two, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| I wonder if perhaps I might | 8 | ·/˘·˘/·· |
| See suddenly a shining knight | 8 | ·/˘˘·/˘· |
| Winding his way from blue to green— | 8 | /˘······ |
| Exactly as it would have been | 8 | ˘/˘····· |
| Those many, many years ago. . . . | 8 | ·/˘/˘·˘/ |
| Perhaps I might. You never know. | 8 | ˘/···/˘· |
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.