Laurel · A. A. Milne · When We Were Very Young

Sand-Between-the-Toes

A. A. Milne (1882–1956) · 1924

iambic tetrameter · AABB · 27 lines · from When We Were Very Young

I went down to the shouting sea,Taking Christopher down with me,For Nurse had given us sixpence each—And down we went to the beach.

We had sand in the eyes and the ears and the nose,And sand in the hair, and sand-between-the-toes.Whenever a good nor’ wester blows,Christopher is certain ofSand-between-the-toes.

The sea was galloping grey and white;Christopher clutched his sixpence tight;We clambered over the humping sand—And Christopher held my hand.

We had sand in the eyes and the ears and the nose,And sand in the hair, and sand-between-the-toes.Whenever a good nor’ wester blows,Christopher is certain ofSand-between-the-toes.

There was a roaring in the sky;The sea-gulls cried as they blew by;We tried to talk, but had to shout—Nobody else was out.

When we got home, we had sand in the hair,In the eyes and the ears and everywhere;Whenever a good nor’ wester blows,Christopher is found withSand-between-the-toes.

Words in this poem

went n.: Course; way; path; journey; direction.
galloping a.: Going at a gallop; progressing rapidly; as, a galloping horse.
nobody n.: No person; no one; not anybody. [No, a. + body.]

Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.

About this text

Sand-Between-the-Toes 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, Sand-Between-the-Toes, in When We Were Very Young (1924), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #70271, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/milne-when-we-were-very-young/sand-between-the-toes.html, id L27205.

Form and metre

Sand-Between-the-Toes is 27 lines in 6 stanzas. The rhyme scheme is AABB, complete in 3 of its 6 stanzas. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 79%).

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 AABB sea^A · me^A · each^B · beach^B
2 AAA-A nose^A · toes^A · blows^A · of · toes^A
3 AABB white^A · tight^A · sand^B · hand^B
4 AAA-A nose^A · toes^A · blows^A · of · toes^A
5 AABB sky^A · by^A · shout^B · out^B
6 AAB-B hair^A · everywhere^A · blows^B · with · toes^B

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
I went down to the shouting sea,	8	·····/˘·
Taking Christopher down with me,	8	/˘/˘˘···
For Nurse had given us sixpence each—	8	···/·/˘·
And down we went to the beach.	7	·······
We had sand in the eyes and the ears and the nose,	12	············
And sand in the hair, and sand-between-the-toes.	11	···········
Whenever a good nor’ wester blows,	9	˘/˘···/˘·
Christopher is certain of	7	/˘˘·/˘·
Sand-between-the-toes.	5	·····
The sea was galloping grey and white;	8	···/˘···
Christopher clutched his sixpence tight;	8	/˘˘··/˘·
We clambered over the humping sand—	8	·/˘··/˘·
And Christopher held my hand.	7	·/˘˘···
We had sand in the eyes and the ears and the nose,	12	············
And sand in the hair, and sand-between-the-toes.	11	···········
Whenever a good nor’ wester blows,	9	˘/˘···/˘·
Christopher is certain of	7	/˘˘·/˘·
Sand-between-the-toes.	5	·····
There was a roaring in the sky;	8	···/˘···
The sea-gulls cried as they blew by;	8	········
We tried to talk, but had to shout—	8	········
Nobody else was out.	6	/·····
When we got home, we had sand in the hair,	10	··········
In the eyes and the ears and everywhere;	10	·······/˘·
Whenever a good nor’ wester blows,	9	˘/˘···/˘·
Christopher is found with	6	/˘˘···
Sand-between-the-toes.	5	·····

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.

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