The Invaders
In careless patches through the woodThe clumps of yellow primrose stood,And sheets of white anemones,Like driven snow against the trees,Had covered up the violet,But left the blue-bell bluer yet.
Along the narrow carpet ride,With primroses on either side,Between their shadows and the sun,The cows came slowly, one by one,Breathing the early morning airAnd leaving it still sweeter there.And, one by one, intent uponTheir purposes, they followed onIn ordered silence . . . and were gone.
But all the little wood was still,As if it waited so, untilSome blackbird on an outpost yew,Watching the slow procession through,Lifted his yellow beak at lastTo whistle that the line had passed. . . .Then all the wood began to singIts morning anthem to the spring.
Words in this poem
- anthem v. t.
- To celebrate with anthems.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Invaders 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 Invaders, 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-invaders.html, id L27210.
Form and metre
The Invaders is 23 lines in 3 verse paragraphs. It is in rhyming couplets, 87% of the lines: octosyllabic couplets. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 91%).
See other poems in octosyllabic couplets, 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 AA--BB woodA · stoodA · anemones · trees · violetB · yetB
- 2 AABBCCDD- rideA · sideA · sunB · oneB · airC · thereC · uponD · onD · gone
- 3 AABBCCDD stillA · untilA · yewB · throughB · lastC · passedC · singD · springD
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 |
|---|---|---|
| In careless patches through the wood | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| The clumps of yellow primrose stood, | 8 | ···/˘/·· |
| And sheets of white anemones, | 7 | ····/˘· |
| Like driven snow against the trees, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Had covered up the violet, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘˘ |
| But left the blue-bell bluer yet. | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Along the narrow carpet ride, | 8 | ˘/·/˘/˘· |
| With primroses on either side, | 8 | ·/·˘·/˘· |
| Between their shadows and the sun, | 8 | ···/···· |
| The cows came slowly, one by one, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Breathing the early morning air | 8 | /˘·/˘/˘· |
| And leaving it still sweeter there. | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| And, one by one, intent upon | 8 | ····˘/·· |
| Their purposes, they followed on | 8 | ·/˘˘·/˘· |
| In ordered silence . . . and were gone. | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| But all the little wood was still, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| As if it waited so, until | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Some blackbird on an outpost yew, | 8 | ·/˘··/·· |
| Watching the slow procession through, | 8 | /˘··˘/˘· |
| Lifted his yellow beak at last | 8 | /˘·/˘··· |
| To whistle that the line had passed. . . . | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Then all the wood began to sing | 8 | ····˘/·· |
| Its morning anthem to the spring. | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
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.