The Christening
What shall I callMy dear little dormouse?His eyes are small,But his tail is e-nor-mouse.
I sometimes call him Terrible John,’Cos his tail goes on—And on—And on.And I sometimes call him Terrible Jack,’Cos his tail goes on to the end of his back.And I sometimes call him Terrible James,’Cos he says he likes me calling him names. . . .
But I think I shall call him Jim,’Cos I am so fond of him.
Words in this poem
- 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,]
- dormouse n.
- A small European rodent of the genus Myoxus, of several species. They live in trees and feed on nuts, acorns, etc.; -- so called because they are usually torpid in winter. [Perh. fr. F. dormir to sleep (Prov. E. dorm to doze) + E. mouse; or perh. changed fr. F. dormeuse, fem., a sleeper, though not found in the sense of a dormouse.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Christening 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, The Christening, in When We Were Very Young (1924), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #70271, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/milne-when-we-were-very-young/the-christening.html, id L27178.
Form and metre
The Christening is 14 lines in 3 verse paragraphs. It is in rhyming couplets, 71% of the lines.
See other poems in rhyming couplets.
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 ABAB callA · dormouseB · smallA · mouseB
- 2 AAAABBCC johnA · onA · onA · onA · jackB · backB · jamesC · namesC
- 3 AA jimA · himA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| What shall I call | 4 | ···· |
| My dear little dormouse? | 6 | ··/˘/· |
| His eyes are small, | 4 | ···· |
| But his tail is e-nor-mouse. | 7 | ······· |
| I sometimes call him Terrible John, | 8 | ·/···/˘· |
| ’Cos his tail goes on— | 5 | ····· |
| And on— | 2 | ·· |
| And on. | 2 | ·· |
| And I sometimes call him Terrible Jack, | 9 | ··/···/˘· |
| ’Cos his tail goes on to the end of his back. | 11 | ··········· |
| And I sometimes call him Terrible James, | 9 | ··/···/˘· |
| ’Cos he says he likes me calling him names. . . . | 10 | ······/˘·· |
| But I think I shall call him Jim, | 8 | ········ |
| ’Cos I am so fond of him. | 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.