Nursery Chairs
One of the chairs is South America,One of the chairs is a ship at sea,One is a cage for a great big lion,And one is a chair for Me.
The First Chair.
When I go up the Amazon,I stop at night and fire a gunTo call my faithful band.And Indians in twos and threes,Come silently between the trees,And wait for me to land.And if I do not want to playWith any Indians to-day,I simply wave my hand.And then they turn and go away—They always understand.
The Second Chair.
I’m a great big lion in my cage,And I often frighten Nanny with a roar.Then I hold her very tight, andTell her not to be so frightened—And she doesn’t be so frightened any more.
The Third Chair.
When I am in my ship, I seeThe other ships go sailing by.A sailor leans and calls to meAs his ship goes sailing by.Across the sea he leans to me,Above the winds I hear him cry:“Is this the way to Round-the-World?”He calls as he goes by.
The Fourth Chair.
Whenever I sit in a high chairFor breakfast or dinner or tea,I try to pretend that it’s my chair,And that I am a baby of three.
Shall I go off to South America?Shall I put out in my ship to sea?Or get in my cage and be lions and tigers?Or—shall I be only Me?
Words in this poem
- nanny n.
- A diminutive of Ann or Anne, the proper name. Nanny goat, a female goat.
- shall v. i.
- To owe; to be under obligation for. [OE. shal, schal, imp. sholde, scholde, AS. scal, sceal, I am obliged, imp. scolde, sceolde, inf. sculan; akin to OS. skulan, pres. skal, imp. skolda, D. zullen,]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Nursery Chairs 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, Nursery Chairs, in When We Were Very Young (1924), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #70271, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/milne-when-we-were-very-young/nursery-chairs.html, id L27185.
Form and metre
Nursery Chairs is 40 lines in 10 stanzas. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 84%).
See 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 -A-A america · seaA · lion · meA
- 3 --ABBACCACA amazon · gun · bandA · threesB · treesB · landA · playC · dayC · handA · awayC · understandA
- 5 -A--A cage · roarA · and · frightened · moreA
- 7 ABABAB-B seeA · byB · meA · byB · meA · cryB · world · byB
- 9 ABAB chairA · teaB · chairA · threeB
- 10 -A-A america · seaA · tigers · meA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| One of the chairs is South America, | 9 | ······˘/˘ |
| One of the chairs is a ship at sea, | 9 | ········· |
| One is a cage for a great big lion, | 9 | ········/ |
| And one is a chair for Me. | 7 | ······· |
| The First Chair. | 3 | ··· |
| When I go up the Amazon, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| I stop at night and fire a gun | 8 | ·····/·· |
| To call my faithful band. | 6 | ···/˘· |
| And Indians in twos and threes, | 8 | ·/˘˘···· |
| Come silently between the trees, | 8 | ·/˘˘···· |
| And wait for me to land. | 6 | ······ |
| And if I do not want to play | 8 | ········ |
| With any Indians to-day, | 8 | ·/˘/˘˘·· |
| I simply wave my hand. | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| And then they turn and go away— | 8 | ······˘/ |
| They always understand. | 6 | ·/··˘/ |
| The Second Chair. | 4 | ·/˘· |
| I’m a great big lion in my cage, | 8 | ····/··· |
| And I often frighten Nanny with a roar. | 11 | ··/˘/˘/˘··· |
| Then I hold her very tight, and | 8 | ····/˘·· |
| Tell her not to be so frightened— | 8 | ······/˘ |
| And she doesn’t be so frightened any more. | 11 | ··/˘··/˘/˘· |
| The Third Chair. | 3 | ··· |
| When I am in my ship, I see | 8 | ········ |
| The other ships go sailing by. | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| A sailor leans and calls to me | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| As his ship goes sailing by. | 7 | ····/˘· |
| Across the sea he leans to me, | 8 | ˘/······ |
| Above the winds I hear him cry: | 8 | ········ |
| “Is this the way to Round-the-World?” | 8 | ········ |
| He calls as he goes by. | 6 | ······ |
| The Fourth Chair. | 3 | ··· |
| Whenever I sit in a high chair | 9 | ˘/˘······ |
| For breakfast or dinner or tea, | 8 | ·/˘·/˘·· |
| I try to pretend that it’s my chair, | 9 | ···˘/···· |
| And that I am a baby of three. | 9 | ·····/˘·· |
| Shall I go off to South America? | 9 | ······˘/˘ |
| Shall I put out in my ship to sea? | 9 | ········· |
| Or get in my cage and be lions and tigers? | 11 | ·······/˘·/ |
| Or—shall I be only Me? | 7 | ····/˘· |
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.