Analysis of Forgotten
Alan Alexander Milne 1882 – 1956
Lords of the Nursery
Wait in a row,
Five on the high wall,
And four on the low;
Big Kings and Little Kings,
Brown Bears and Black,
All of them waiting
Till John comes back.
Some think that John boy
Is lost in the wood,
Some say he couldn’ t be,
Some say he could.
Some think that John boy
Hides on the hill;
Some say he won’ t come back,
Some say he will.
High was the sun, when
John went away . . .
Here they’ ve been waiting
All through the day;
Big Bears and Little Bears,
White Kings and Black,
All of them waiting
Till John comes back.
Lords of the Nursery
Looked down the hill,
Some saw the sheep-fold,
Some say the mill;
Some saw the roofs
Of the little grey town . . .
And their shadows grew long
As the sun slipt down.
Gold between the poplars
An old moon shows;
Silver up the star-way
The full moon rose;
Silver down the star-way
The old moon crept . . .
And, one by another,
The grey fields slept.
Lords of the Nursery
Their still watch keep . . .
They hear from the sheep-fold
The rustle of sheep.
A young bird twitters
And hides its head;
A little wind suddenly
Breathes, and is dead.
Slowly and slowly
Dawns the new day . . .
What’s become of John boy?
No one can say.
Some think that John boy
Is lost on the hill;
Some say he won’ t come back,
Some say he will.
What's become of John boy?
Nothing at all,
He played with his skipping rope,
He played with his ball.
He ran after butterflies,
Blue ones and red;
He did a hundred happy things—
And then went to bed.
Scheme | AbcbdeFE GhahGiEI xjfjxeFE Aikixlxl dmjmjnxn Aokodpap ajgjGiEI gcxcxpdp |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 110100 1001 11011 01101 110101 1101 11110 1111 11111 11001 111111 1111 11111 1101 1111111 1111 11011 1101 111110 1101 110101 1101 11110 1111 110100 1101 11011 1101 1101 101011 01111 10111 10101 1111 101011 0111 101011 0111 011010 0111 110100 1111 111011 01011 0111 0111 0101100 1011 10010 1011 001111 1111 11111 11101 1111111 1111 101111 1011 1111101 11111 111010 1101 11010101 01111 |
Closest metre | Iambic trimeter |
Characters | 1,744 |
Words | 286 |
Sentences | 30 |
Stanzas | 8 |
Stanza Lengths | 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8 |
Lines Amount | 64 |
Letters per line (avg) | 17 |
Words per line (avg) | 5 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 139 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 37 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 28, 2023
- 1:26 min read
- 138 Views
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"Forgotten" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 26 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/241/forgotten>.
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