Spring Morning
Where am I going? I don’t quite know.Down to the stream where the king-cups grow—Up on the hill where the pine trees blow—Anywhere, anywhere. I don’t know.
Where am I going? The clouds sail by,Little ones, baby ones, over the sky.Where am I going? The shadows pass,Little ones, baby ones, over the grass.
If you were a cloud, and sailed up there,You’d sail on water as blue as air,And you’d see me here in the fields and say:“Doesn’t the sky look green to-day?”
Where am I going? The high rooks call:“It’s awful fun to be born at all.”Where am I going? The ring-doves coo:“We do have beautiful things to do.”
If you were a bird, and lived on high,You’d lean on the wind when the wind came by,You’d say to the wind when it took you away:“That’s where I wanted to go to-day!”
Where am I going? I don’t quite know.What does it matter where people go?Down to the wood where the blue-bells grow—Anywhere, anywhere. I don’t know.
About this text
Spring Morning 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, Spring Morning, in When We Were Very Young (1924), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #70271, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/milne-when-we-were-very-young/spring-morning.html, id L27190.
Form and metre
Spring Morning is 24 lines in 6 stanzas of 4 lines each. The rhyme scheme is AABB, complete in 4 of its 6 stanzas.
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 AAAA knowA · growA · blowA · knowA
- 2 AABB byA · skyA · passB · grassB
- 3 AABB thereA · airA · sayB · dayB
- 4 AABB callA · allA · cooB · doB
- 5 AABB highA · byA · awayB · dayB
- 6 AAAA knowA · goA · growA · knowA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Where am I going? I don’t quite know. | 8 | ···/···· |
| Down to the stream where the king-cups grow— | 9 | ········· |
| Up on the hill where the pine trees blow— | 9 | ········· |
| Anywhere, anywhere. I don’t know. | 9 | /˘·/˘···· |
| Where am I going? The clouds sail by, | 8 | ···/···· |
| Little ones, baby ones, over the sky. | 9 | /˘·/˘···· |
| Where am I going? The shadows pass, | 8 | ···/·/·· |
| Little ones, baby ones, over the grass. | 9 | /˘·/˘···· |
| If you were a cloud, and sailed up there, | 9 | ········· |
| You’d sail on water as blue as air, | 9 | ···/˘···· |
| And you’d see me here in the fields and say: | 10 | ·········· |
| “Doesn’t the sky look green to-day?” | 8 | /˘······ |
| Where am I going? The high rooks call: | 8 | ···/···· |
| “It’s awful fun to be born at all.” | 9 | ·/˘······ |
| Where am I going? The ring-doves coo: | 8 | ···/···· |
| “We do have beautiful things to do.” | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| If you were a bird, and lived on high, | 9 | ········· |
| You’d lean on the wind when the wind came by, | 10 | ·········· |
| You’d say to the wind when it took you away: | 11 | ·········˘/ |
| “That’s where I wanted to go to-day!” | 9 | ···/˘···· |
| Where am I going? I don’t quite know. | 8 | ···/···· |
| What does it matter where people go? | 9 | ···/˘·/˘· |
| Down to the wood where the blue-bells grow— | 9 | ········· |
| Anywhere, anywhere. I don’t know. | 9 | /˘·/˘···· |
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.