The Four Friends
Ernest was an elephant, a great big fellow,Leonard was a lion with a six-foot tail,George was a goat, and his beard was yellow,And James was a very small snail.
Leonard had a stall, and a great big strong one,Ernest had a manger, and its walls were thick,George found a pen, but I think it was the wrong one,And James sat down on a brick.
Ernest started trumpeting, and cracked his manger,Leonard started roaring, and shivered his stall,James gave the huffle of a snail in dangerAnd nobody heard him at all.
Ernest started trumpeting and raised such a rumpusLeonard started roaring and trying to kick,James went a journey with the goat’s new compassAnd he reached the end of his brick.
Ernest was an elephant and very well-intentioned,Leonard was a lion with a brave new tail,George was a goat, as I think I have mentioned,But James was only a snail.
Words in this poem
- manger n.
- A trough or open box in which fodder is placed for horses or cattle to eat. [F. mangeoire, fr. manger to eat, fr. L. manducare, fr. mandere to chew. Cf. Mandible, Manducate.]
- trumpeting n.
- A channel cut behind the brick lining of a shaft. Raymond.
- cracked a.
- Coarsely ground or broken; as, cracked wheat.
- nobody n.
- No person; no one; not anybody. [No, a. + body.]
- rumpus n.
- A disturbance; noise and confusion; a quarrel.
- went n.
- Course; way; path; journey; direction.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Four Friends 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 Four Friends, 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-four-friends.html, id L27181.
Form and metre
The Four Friends is 20 lines in 5 stanzas of 4 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABAB. The metre is trochaic hexameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 76%).
See other poems in trochaic hexameter.
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 fellowA · tailB · yellowA · snailB
- 2 ABAB oneA · thickB · oneA · brickB
- 3 ABAB mangerA · stallB · dangerA · allB
- 4 ABAB rumpusA · kickB · compassA · brickB
- 5 ABAB intentionedA · tailB · mentionedA · snailB
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 trochaic hexameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Ernest was an elephant, a great big fellow, | 12 | /˘··/˘˘···/˘ |
| Leonard was a lion with a six-foot tail, | 11 | /˘··/˘····· |
| George was a goat, and his beard was yellow, | 10 | ········/˘ |
| And James was a very small snail. | 8 | ····/˘·· |
| Leonard had a stall, and a great big strong one, | 11 | /˘········· |
| Ernest had a manger, and its walls were thick, | 11 | /˘··/˘····· |
| George found a pen, but I think it was the wrong one, | 12 | ············ |
| And James sat down on a brick. | 7 | ······· |
| Ernest started trumpeting, and cracked his manger, | 12 | /˘/˘/˘˘···/˘ |
| Leonard started roaring, and shivered his stall, | 11 | /˘/˘/˘·/˘·· |
| James gave the huffle of a snail in danger | 11 | ·········/˘ |
| And nobody heard him at all. | 8 | ·/······ |
| Ernest started trumpeting and raised such a rumpus | 12 | /˘/˘/˘····/˘ |
| Leonard started roaring and trying to kick, | 11 | /˘/˘/˘·/˘·· |
| James went a journey with the goat’s new compass | 11 | ···/˘····/˘ |
| And he reached the end of his brick. | 8 | ········ |
| Ernest was an elephant and very well-intentioned, | 13 | /˘··/˘·/˘·˘/˘ |
| Leonard was a lion with a brave new tail, | 11 | /˘··/˘····· |
| George was a goat, as I think I have mentioned, | 11 | ·········/˘ |
| But James was only a snail. | 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.