Vespers
Little Boy kneels at the foot of the bed,Droops on the little hands little gold head.Hush! Hush! Whisper who dares!Christopher Robin is saying his prayers.
God bless Mummy. I know that’s right.Wasn’t it fun in the bath to-night?The cold’s so cold, and the hot’s so hot.Oh! God bless Daddy—I quite forgot.
If I open my fingers a little bit more,I can see Nanny’s dressing-gown on the door.It’s a beautiful blue, but it hasn’t a hood.Oh! God bless Nanny and make her good.
Mine has a hood, and I lie in bed,And pull the hood right over my head,And I shut my eyes, and I curl up small,And nobody knows that I’m there at all.
Oh! Thank you, God, for a lovely day.And what was the other I had to say?I said “Bless Daddy,” so what can it be?Oh! Now I remember it. God bless Me.
Little Boy kneels at the foot of the bed,Droops on the little hands little gold head.Hush! Hush! Whisper who dares!Christopher Robin is saying his prayers.
Words in this poem
- daddy n.
- Diminutive of Dad.
- nanny n.
- A diminutive of Ann or Anne, the proper name. Nanny goat, a female goat.
- nobody n.
- No person; no one; not anybody. [No, a. + body.]
- thank n.
- A expression of gratitude; an acknowledgment expressive of a sense of favor or kindness received; obligation, claim, or desert, or gratitude; -- now generally used in the plural. [AS. Þanc, Þonc, thanks, favor, thought; akin to OS. thank favor, pleasure, thanks, D. & G. dank thanks, Icel. Þ\'94kk, Dan. tak, Sw. tack, Goth. Þagks thanks; -]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Vespers 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, Vespers, in When We Were Very Young (1924), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #70271, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/milne-when-we-were-very-young/vespers.html, id L27218.
Form and metre
Vespers is 24 lines in 6 stanzas of 4 lines each. Every stanza rhymes AABB.
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 bedA · headA · daresB · prayersB
- 2 AABB rightA · nightA · hotB · forgotB
- 3 AABB moreA · doorA · hoodB · goodB
- 4 AABB bedA · headA · smallB · allB
- 5 AABB dayA · sayA · beB · meB
- 6 AABB bedA · headA · daresB · prayersB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Little Boy kneels at the foot of the bed, | 10 | /˘········ |
| Droops on the little hands little gold head. | 10 | ···/˘·/˘·· |
| Hush! Hush! Whisper who dares! | 6 | ··/˘·· |
| Christopher Robin is saying his prayers. | 10 | /˘˘/˘·/˘·· |
| God bless Mummy. I know that’s right. | 8 | ··/˘···· |
| Wasn’t it fun in the bath to-night? | 9 | /˘······· |
| The cold’s so cold, and the hot’s so hot. | 9 | ········· |
| Oh! God bless Daddy—I quite forgot. | 9 | ···/˘··˘/ |
| If I open my fingers a little bit more, | 12 | ··/˘·/˘·/˘·· |
| I can see Nanny’s dressing-gown on the door. | 11 | ···/˘/˘···· |
| It’s a beautiful blue, but it hasn’t a hood. | 11 | ··/˘···/˘·· |
| Oh! God bless Nanny and make her good. | 9 | ···/˘···· |
| Mine has a hood, and I lie in bed, | 9 | ········· |
| And pull the hood right over my head, | 9 | ········· |
| And I shut my eyes, and I curl up small, | 10 | ·········· |
| And nobody knows that I’m there at all. | 10 | ·/········ |
| Oh! Thank you, God, for a lovely day. | 9 | ······/˘· |
| And what was the other I had to say? | 10 | ····/˘···· |
| I said “Bless Daddy,” so what can it be? | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Oh! Now I remember it. God bless Me. | 10 | ···˘/˘···· |
| Little Boy kneels at the foot of the bed, | 10 | /˘········ |
| Droops on the little hands little gold head. | 10 | ···/˘·/˘·· |
| Hush! Hush! Whisper who dares! | 6 | ··/˘·· |
| Christopher Robin is saying his prayers. | 10 | /˘˘/˘·/˘·· |
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.